The Forest
by Monolaymoo
Summary: Before, children would play in the forest and return claiming to have seen a man. Parents usually brush it off as a shadow or a creation of their playful minds. But everything changed one day...
1. The Story

**Author's note:** This story is an apology to readers for me always redoing LR-5. As much as I hate admit it, the task is too much for me. So I need someone to help me write it. Pls send me a PM if you're interested in taking my request. My thanks in advance.

Also, I'm not good with rating things so if you think there's a mistake, pls point it out to me.

I will also continue one of my on-hold fics I haven't updated in a long time because I've been forgetting. Once I do, feel free to suggest stories for it.

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A long time ago, there lived a kingdom filled with peace. Everyone was happy and content, and more so with the young prince's birthday coming. As the townspeople spent their time decorating the kingdom with flowers and lanterns of varying colors, they also steadily prepared lavish gifts to give to the young prince.

Everyone loved the young prince so none of them minded. He always visited the people when he had the chance to see how everyone was doing while looking for other children to play with him. Whenever the people were doing something, the young prince would always come over, wondering if he could be of use in any way.

Even though he was only seven years of age, he still wanted to be of help to them in whatever way he could. He was so polite and energetic and the people just loved him. Unfortunately, not everyone concurred.

You see, just a decade or so ago, the kingdom was not as peaceful as now. There was a ruthless warlord who demanded respect from the people rather than worked to earn it, preferably in the form of gold or silver coins, property, rare animals, and wine.

He always felt the need to have the best and he demanded it from everyone. Should it not be paid, then the person has not paid him properly for the protection he has provided for him and would simply lose his head.

And so, each day, the people paid him. And with each passing day, the amount grew and grew until the people barely had anything left to pay him.

So what did you think happened next?

Yes, no one was paying for their protection; their protection from him. Day in and day out and even pass the night, you could still hear someone having their life torn away from them and see the light of fire set unto their homes with people still inside.

If you were lucky enough to pay though, all your worries will be how you will be able obtain food for your starving family.

It wasn't long before everyone, even his own advisors, had had enough with this madness. They had to put an end to this before it got worse, and the man who led them was a mere farmer.

He rallied everyone quickly and everyone took arms. Everyone's sons and daughters and wives were already dead or close to that and so there was one thing all agreed upon; they had absolutely nothing to lose.

And so that night, during a party that the warlord threw, they stormed through the barricades, overpowered him and chased the man and his surviving family out.

When the dust settled and the people realized that they had won and the farmer gained everything the old warlord had and he knew just what to do it and gave most back. The rest was used to repair and fix all the previous warlord had ruined and after so many years of hard labor, everyone was finally happy.

Everyone that is but the old warlord. He was furious. He wanted the man who had bested him to pay for his actions and all that rage that he held was passed on to his son; the prince's guard.

"Hey!" The young prince called as he came running to him, as happy as ever. "Have you finished practice yet?"

"Yes, we just finished." The guard answered coldly.

"Good! Then we can play hide and seek!" The prince happily rejoiced. "I want to seek this time! You always find me!"

_Little brat…_, the guard thought in his head but quickly put up a fake smile and reasoned, "And you're not very good at finding me. If I let you seek, we'd be at it the entire day."

"Aw…" The prince sighed. "Okay, I hide and you seek me! I think I've gotten better so you won't find me!"

_Yes. If only you could just find a hole to crawl into and stay there,_ the guard coldly snapped in his mind but nodded his head and watched the child run away to hide somewhere. Once he was gone, he frowned and swung his sword with a curse.

"Stuck babysitting the brat again, I see." Another guard appeared with a smug grin.

"Be quiet." The guard snapped. "At the count of ten, I'm supposed to go and find him."

"Then just leave him there then." The other guard chuckled. "Maybe he'll just stay there and wait there for you until he dies."

"Then the king will have my head." The guard grumbled.

"I don't see why that should be of a concern to you." The other guard said. "It's almost time after all. Are you ready?"

"Of course." The guard answered. "You just better not screw up your part."

"Hah. Like that's possible." The other guard laughed as he left. The guard just sighed and went off to look for the prince who was probably hiding in the bakery again. No matter. When the day was over, he'll have the kingdom. He went to the bakery and greeted the folks and went around looking for the prince. He checked the cupboards, and the closets, and then he checked the back room and saw the prince hiding behind a counter. The guard sighed as he hung his head at how predictable the prince was. He took a deep breath to ready himself into character, pretending to be having trouble looking for him.

"Prince? Where are you? Where did you hide?" The guard wondered out loud with some tiredness lacing his voice. He could hear the prince laughing playfully just behind the counter which tempted the guard to run and strangle the proud child, but he calmed himself quickly and snuck towards him and grabbed the prince from behind. "Got you!" He yelled, pretending t be happy and making the oblivious prince smile.

"You found me!" The prince laughed. The guard set the child down who was now a bit tired. "You're just too good at this! You have to teach me how to be that good, too!"

"Sure, when you're older." The guard lied, but the prince smiled and hugged the guard as he usually did everyday.

_If you live that is..._

"I love you so much!" It was something the prince told him everyday. Everyone knew how much the prince adored him. He looked up to him like he was his brother or something; but the guard shrugged that off as he always did. That was because of his own brother; his older brother who wasn't as lucky to escape the castle as he and his father.

He could care less about his father. The man wasn't exactly the greatest father in the world but his mother and brother were different. His memories of them were warm and always managed to put a smile and tear to his usually stone cold heart. Now they were gone and as a result, his life became living hell as his father heaped all his ideals of revenge on his back and he would never forgive the prince because of that.

Yes, this is his reason. Not for his ignorant father but for his loving mother and brother.

_I will avenge you._

"Come on, you still have your studies to attend to." The guard said, holding the prince's hand to lead him away when the child pulled back.

"Wait, I have to get something!" The prince said before running over to the baker and whispering something into his ear. The man laughed and patted the prince's head before leaving. When he came back, he was carrying a large _manju _which he wrapped up in some paper and placed in a box before happily handing it to the prince, probably as a gift. The thought made the guard scoff when the prince came over to him.

_The spoiled runt…if only you'd trip._

He didn't, to his disappointment, and the prince brought the cake up to him happily. "That's a nice looking cake." The guard complimented him. "Did you thank the baker for giving you the cake?"

"Hehe, yes!" The prince nodded.

The guard took no heed of it as he took the confectionery in one hand and the prince's hand in the other and headed to the castle to begin his plans.

Night finally drew in and the lanterns were lit everywhere. Everyone was singing and dancing and the guard felt sick. "Once the party is finished, everything will be ours." The other guard whispered to him.

"That's if everything goes accordingly." The guard mentioned before looking at the lord merrily drinking with his other loyal officials with fire in his eyes. The other guard said nothing and left to begin his preparations. Meanwhile, the guard left to attend to the prince for the final time, who was talking with his friends happily.

_When this is over, I'll make sure you have nothing left…_

But seeing the child so happy with his friends did make him feel a bit sorry for the prince. He was now in the same cruel situation as him just many years ago; surrounded by all his friends and loved ones as happy as he could be and in a few hours, it'll all be gone.

But he had to remind himself of the prince's sins. He was just as bad his father and he needed to pay for every bit of it as much as he did.

"Hey, come here!" The prince went up to him. "We're going to play hide and seek! Come and join us!"

"Sorry, but I'm still too tired from practice." The guard rejected with a fake tone of regret.

"Please! Come on, please!" The prince begged. The guard gave the child an annoyed look but smiled.

"All right, all right…" he finally conceded. Since he would die tonight, he would at least play with him for a while as a cruel parting gift.

"Yay!" The prince cheered before looking back at his friends with a nod. The other children giggled, too, as they through the door behind them. "Let's go and follow them!" The prince said before pushing the guard to another room in a hurry.

_How bothersome… no, just a few more hours and I'll be rid of this demeaning work. Just be patient…_

The guard sighed and raised his head to seek again but when he got in, he was surprised.

"Surprise!" The kids said with the prince happily jumping in front of the guard with a present in his hands outstretched towards him. "It's a birthday party for you!" The guard was now very surprised considering it wasn't even his birthday.

"My- I thought I told you I don't remember when my birthday is." The guard said. In reality, he clearly remembered when his birthday was. His parents were celebrating it the day of the attack. If he told anyone, his identity would without a doubt be unmasked and the plan would be ruined.

"I know! That's why I decided to make today your birthday!" The prince said. "That way, we can celebrate together! Aren't you glad?"

_Glad to have my birthday sullied by having it mixed together with yours!? I-_

Half way through his train of thought, the prince pushed him closer to his friends. "Come on! Let's play some games!" He said. The guard groaned as he was forced to play with the other small children. Still, this was all a surprise. Not even his father had bothered to try and celebrate the anniversary of his birth as he remained consumed by his thoughts of revenge. In a sense, this was his first time celebrating his birthday.

Over time, the games stopped and the prince brought him some cake which the guard quickly realized was the one given by the baker earlier. "Eat some!" The prince said, looking at him with bright, gleaming eyes.

The guard shrugged it off, sliced it and ate only a piece. He wasn't much of a sweets lover. The other children then proceeded to hand him his many presents: a bag, a coat, and a hat, all of which were simple and very crudely made with some holes and patches; evidence that the children had made it all themselves with much effort and difficulty.

The guard smiled out of pity for them and said his thanks. These children were merely commoners the prince had befriended and invited. They had nothing to do with vengeance so it was a sad thought for him that they would caught in the crossfire of this whole affair but they could blame their sad fates on the prince. They wouldn't be dead after all if the prince hadn't invited them.

Now only the prince was left but he didn't have his gift with him. He had to follow him to get his present. "It'll only take a couple of minutes! Dad and everyone won't even notice!" the prince said.

Naturally, he guard didn't want to go. Not when his plans were so close to fruition but the oblivious prince was as persistent as his father and finally the guard was forced to concede.

_Only a few hours left…it'll only take a few minutes anyway. Then again, with this stupid child it could mean hours._

But the guard agreed and followed the prince as they sneaked off into the nearby woods, but he had to remember to return quickly to proceed with the plan. The other children said their goodbye as they stayed to make sure no adult would find them out.

And so they snuck out of the castle and into the streets paved with happy people drinking, and playing and talking. There was glee everywhere, a contrast to what the guard was used to. But tomorrow, the people would mourn over the lost of the warlord but that was alright. They could easily pick a new one and go on with their lives as merrily as today.

"Everyone's so happy!" the prince said happily as he wandered through the people. The guard wondered if he even remembered that they were here to get his present.

"But remember, we need to be back before your father notices we're gone." He reminded the child who suddenly pouted and turned red with embarrassment.

"O-of course! Let's hurry!" he said.

"You forgot didn't you?" he pointed out but the prince just pouted some more.

"No I did not!" he insisted.

_What a brat._ But the guard really wasn't much in position to tell him off. He remembered when he was young how his brother would tease him about being forgetful. He would say that he hadn't as a response but he had indeed forgotten. The guard looked around and saw two boys running happily chasing each other. The sight made smile. That was how they were too.

"Are you okay?" the prince suddenly went up to him and asked, startling the guard.

"Of course. Please don't startle me like that." He said but the prince still gave him a worried look.

"Are you sure?" the prince asked again the guard nodded.

"Yes. Now let's hurry before anyone notices." He said and the child smiled at him and grabbed his hand and began pulling him.

"Okay! Let's go then!" the prince encouraged and in a rare moment, the guard didn't think any ill of his actions. It simply brought back more memories from the past but he had to quickly put those feelings aside.

_Remember the plan. Don't get soft now._

But as he was thinking that, the prince suddenly stopped and grinned. "We're here!" he said. "It's over there"

The guard wasn't listening though. The sheer sight of it appalled him as the prince pointed directly to the nearby forest that everyone knew spread out through the mountains where it was nothing but hundreds of thousands of acres of wooded forestry.

Just the thought of going in there nearly made him scream but with such a crowd around them celebrating, he couldn't risk making a scene.

"Prince, you said it would only take a few minutes." He said, resisting the urge to strangle the child who nodded proudly.

"Don't worry! We just have to go up the woods and run back. It'll be fine! And anyway, I left markers!" the prince said pointing directly to a tied cloth on a tree.

It was still easier said than done. Even the guard himself had trouble trekking through the thick woodlot. On the plus side, he could kill him there. No one would hear him scream but then again, he needed all the advantage he could to defeat a warlord. Just in case the old man manages to fight off him and his co-conspirers, they'd still have a chance to kill him if he waved his son at his face with knife on his neck.

The guard grumbled as he followed the prince up through the thorny thickets and craggy ground, unable to kill him for the value he held. After a long time, they finally reached a mountain and the prince smiled as he pointed to a hole no bigger than the prince himself.

"Through here! Your present's over there!" The prince said. The guard was too tired and angry to even respond.

How long had it been? And hour or two? And he had spent that time getting scratched up by thorns and dirtying and tearing his clothes through the unforgiving landscape until his feet were sore.

"Come on! Hurry up!" the prince said before going into the hole hunched down ever so lightly but the guard himself, almost an adult, was reduced to crawl through the hole.

_Stupid…runt…once this…is over I swear-!_

He was at the brink of losing his temper when he heard prince's voice just over away. "It's here! You have to see it!" he chirped excitedly.

"I'm coming!" The guard grumbled as he finally arrived to a larger opening leading to a huge cave and there the prince was, standing tiptoed against the cave's side with his face gleaming. The guard brushed off the dust and went over to his side in a huff.

"What is it anyway that… you…" In that moment, it seemed all of his anger was washed away. The prince was peering through a hole on the cave just big enough to act as a window. And through it, the guard saw a firsthand view of the forest from above.

Once the bane of his thoughts was now the beautiful thing he'd seen. The forest was still dark but under the delicate moonlight and the glistening stars, the forest looked like something from a fairytale and it gave off a mystic aura. And just beyond that was the town that glowed from the lanterns that hung about. You could still hear the people laughing softly. The sight was absolutely breathtaking.

"Isn't it pretty here?" The prince said while tugging at the guard's robe, snapping him out of his trance. "I found it while playing hide and seek with you before! I thought that it would be the perfect present for you so I decided to go and hide somewhere else so I could give it to you, well, today!"

The guard gave the prince a surprised glance and looked back at the scene. "So what do you think? Is it nice?" The prince asked happily.

"Um, yeah." The guard answered but still looking out at the moon.

The prince smiled happily at the guard. He was like a brother to him and always took care him. When found this place, he just wanted to give it to the guard. Anything to make him as happy as he was. He looked out again but at the corner of his eye, his heart skipped a beat.

"Guard, what's that?" the prince asked as he tugged the guard's robe again who was still in a trance. He looked off to where he pointed and everything came flooding back as he saw black clouds emerge from the town.

_Smoke? No! Impossible! __It's not even time, yet!_

"We need to head back!" The guard said as he grabbed the startled prince but he nodded and willingly followed the guard. As they came closer to town, the guard became more and more agitated. Had he been double crossed?

As the sounds of terrified screams grew more and more, the site of the town when they arrived confirmed their fears; an uncontrollable fire had broken out. Worried and frightened by the fearful sounds, the prince let out a cry.

The flames were everywhere. Houses, buildings, trees…

The people were scrambling around at a loss through the winding roads as people ran in and out; some still stayed behind bravely to try and help put out the flames while others were just trying to escape while they still had their lives. The children and the elderly were too weak to run. Young infants and toddlers were wailing beside what appeared to be their mothers or fathers or sisters or brothers, and the old couldn't even stand as fleeing evacuees knocked them over, not even stopping to help except a kind few. The horrific scene was sickening for the both them.

_No! This wasn't the plan at all! What is he thinking!?_

Just as the guard began to panic, he managed to see the prince run pass him towards a building engulfed in fire with a crying infant inside in the hands of its mother who was lying either passed out or dead on the wooden floor.

The guard was snapped out of his thoughts when he noticed something else; the house's beams, weakened by the flames, were now collapsing. Without even thinking, just before the prince could enter, the guard's arm reached out by itself and he grabbed the child with a harsh pull backwards. He caught the prince as he stumbled back and they watched in horror as the house crumbled down like unstable boulders, crushing all below with a loud crash, silencing the baby's wails permanently.

The grisly scene even shook the normally cold and callous guard to his core. At that moment, everything became blurry. For the first time, he began doubting if the prize he had yearned for so long was worth this. A hand grabbing him brought him back to the harsh reality as he looked to see the prince sobbing. "We have to save them! Please save them!" But from the look of his eyes and his voice, the guard knew that he already knew they were no longer alive.

All he could do was shake his head as the prince cried louder into his robe.

_This… this wasn't the plan at all! You- what have you done?!_

Then, as if by telepathy, a gleeful laugh erupted from behind them that caught the guard's full, anger-filled attention.

"Like the lights? I've always loved the way fire ravages everything it touches." The other sadistic guard laughed.

"Bastard! This is chaos! What have you done!?" The guard roared, only to receive a nonchalant chuckle as a response.

"I believe it's called 'mutiny'." The other guard answered coolly. "Or to be more specific, I'm done with you. You didn't actually think I was planning on following your plan to begin with and let you take the crown? No… the next ruler of this place is going to be yours truly."

"You…!" The guard hissed, beating himself over and over for not realizing the other guard's disloyalty and plan all along. The prince though, was too confused to fathom what was happening between them.

"Y-you…?" The prince shakily called. "Is that really you?"

"Hm? You're still alive?" The other guard asked before pulling his sword out with a grin. "Well, we can't have that now, can we?" The prince stared at the other guard in pure fear, so much that he couldn't move, but the guard wasn't afraid. He was furious, and he unsheathed his blade in front of him.

"Really? Now this is a surprise." The other guard mused. "What happened to cutting the kid in half and throwing his body into a moat?"

The statement furthered the prince's fears as he fearfully watched the guard. His world had crumbled completely and now he had no idea who was who. He adored the guard like a brother and the other guard was his father's most revered guard. How could this all be? The guard looked to the frightened prince, now a bit more remorseful, before looking back at the other guard. "Plan's changed. You should know all about it!"

"Yes. Yes indeed. That's why I came prepared." The other guard said, and with a snap of his fingers, other guards, all defectors of the governor, appeared with swords, surrounding the two in a circle. "It's been fun. When you get to hell, say hi to the previous king for me, will you?" The guard looked around desperately to find a way out for both of them when he saw another burning home next to them, though much taller.

Taking a gamble, he threw his sword as far as possible over the traitors' heads and managed to hit the weakening beam. The building toppled over helplessly over the guards as part of it smashed the ground, scaring some away. The guard took this golden opportunity, grabbed the prince and ran back to the woods where he was sure no guard would be. However, reality had sunk into the prince and he began struggling against the guard, crying and screaming at him all the way up to release him. The guard grumbled at his tantrums as they would soon be caught and executed if this went on long enough. He threw him down on a pile of dead leaves and shook him.

"Stop yelling, will you? Do want us to die?! If you keep screaming like that, they'll find us in no time and cut our heads off!" He scolded, but the prince cried even more.

"W-well… So what!? Isn't that what you wanted?!" The prince wailed bitterly. "You were the one who planned this! You were the one who helped him! It's your fault so why should you be worried!?"

"This wasn't my plan, okay?! It's his! Not mine!" The guard snapped. "I only wanted the throne! This… this isn't what I wanted!"

"Liar!" The prince yelled. "You're lying! This is all your fault! Your fault! YOURS!" The guard gritted his teeth. He had had enough of the prince and slapped him hard, then shook him vigorously with slight tears in his own eyes.

"SHUT UP! Just shut up for once you stupid, moronic, spoiled brat! This isn't my fault, you hear!? This is yours! If it hadn't been for your father my brother would still be here and I would never have had to live all alone, fending for myself every day because everyone hates you! If it hadn't been for you, I would be happy! I would have had friends and I would have had a family and my life wouldn't have turned out to be garbage! So stop nagging me and just go and die so I can have all that!" He screamed at the child.

The prince looked at him, shocked, disoriented and scared. The guard glared madly at the prince before noticing his bleeding cheek and his bruises from the vicious shaking, he was now at his limits and began to sob.

The guard, in quick realization, let him down gently and began tending to him. "No! Don't cry! I didn't mean that!" He quickly said. "Don't cry, don't cry! I'm sorry, okay?! Just don't cry! You're right! You're absolutely right! It's all my fault, just as you said! Everything you said is right!"

But the prince continued to cry as the guard's coos and many attempts to sooth him failed to reach him. The guard was now at a loss to what to do until he caught glimpse of some herbs nearby. He quickly recognized them as pain relievers and plucked them fast and handed to the prince. "Here, eat this. It will make the pain go away!" The guard promised.

The prince looked at the plants hesitantly. Seeing this, the guard took some and stuffed them into his mouth and chewed them. "See? I'm eating them, too!" The prince was confused by the guard's bizarre behavior and in truth, so was the guard himself, but with the situation at hand, there wasn't much room for wondering and the prince took the rest, chewed it as best he could.

The sore on his cheek slowly began to numb, enough that he finally calmed down to dry his tears. But soon, the two could hear footsteps close by and those were definitely guards who barked off orders to the lower runts to find them.

The guard quickly grabbed the smaller child and pulled him under a large hole beneath a birch tree. The guards, not noticing a thing, marched by, still trying to find them.

"I…I'm scared." The prince cried weakly to him. The guard, for the first time, held the smaller child in an attempt to ease his fears.

"It'll be fine." He said, watching out until the guards were gone. "Now listen, remember that secret place you took me to? My present?" The prince nodded. "Now, I want you to go there and hide. I'm going to go distract the guards away from you." The guard explained.

"But…what about you?" The prince asked.

"I'll meet you there later." The guard assured but the prince didn't move. He only looked at him, still scared from their argument just a moment ago.

"You- you mean it?" The prince asked shakily.

"Yes. You'll be safe there. No one knows about that spot but you and I. No one will find you there." The guard answered as he dried the last of the prince's tears.

"You… you promise?" The prince asked with desperation and fear. "You promise it will be safe? You aren't lying to me again are you!?" He asked, now frantic. The guard held him closer and nodded his head.

"Yes. You'll be safe there." He promised. "Just trust me. Just this time, trust me."

"O-okay…" The prince quivered as the guard let go of him. As he helped the child out, the guard patted his head. "Don't worry. Just stay there and be quiet." The guard said. "If I don't come, just stay there and wait two days. If I still don't come, escape without me."

"What!? But-" The prince gasped but the guard placed his finger over his mouth to hush him.

"Go. Now." He told him. The prince sniffled before nodding. The guard led him as far as he could before seeing him off. Once he was gone, the guard went further and climbed up a tree and waited. Just as his honed instincts expected, a guard came by and the guard jumped him, knocking the guard out quick with the strongest blow he could give to his head with a large rock he found in one hand. The guard didn't even have time to make a sound as he fell to the ground. The guard grabbed the man's sword and didn't waste time as he slew the guard and went to find the others, setting as many traps as he could on the way. Finally, he found them. A search party trying to find them and the guard decided to help them out. He took a pebble and tossed it nearby. One of them noticed and came to him and once he was within range, the guard shot and swung his sword, killing the guard instantly and notifying the others of his presence.

"There he is!"

"Kill him!"

"Don't let him escape!" The guard ran down, weaving his way through the trunks and rocks and continuing on as he heard some of his traps snap up, killing and confusing some of the other guards. In truth, all he wanted now was to meet the other guard so he could kill the man for everything he had done. Half way running, a tree rustled up ahead and the guard jumped back quickly and swung up his sword to clash with another.

"Nice to see you again!" The other guard greeted and the two retreated before clashing swords again and again. "And I see you're alone! Where's the kid? Don't tell me you're actually helping him?"

"Like I ever would!" The guard said as he slashed at him, missing and dodging his counterattack. "I took him so he would be my hostage! I need a little help escaping before I assemble another set of troops to help me take the crown, but this is good! I can kill you before I leave!"

"Hah! You're terrible at lying you know!" The other guard said as he blocked the guard's attack and pushed him away, but instead of retaliating, he put his sword down. Then, as if on cue, guards appeared and surrounded him. There were too many and the guard knew that he was done for. "Your life ends here." The other guard said. Strangely enough, as he saw all guards around him, the guard felt perfectly all right with that. If all the guards were here, then that meant he had effectively done his duty; his final duty. "And before you leave, I have a gift for you." The other guard said.

"Is it your head?" The guard asked cynically.

"Close. It's a head all right." The other guard answered with a sociopath-like grin as he looked towards the other guards. Some of them nodded and dragged out a sack then threw it near the center where the guard was. "Open it." The guard sighed and went up to the sack then undid the end. Then, reality dropped the cruelest sight imaginable in front of him. Inside was the prince, or rather his body parts, all chopped into pieces and his blood stained the entire inside of the thick, leather sack. "We found him hiding in a cave." The other guard explained with a cruel, cheerful smile. "I always keep tabs on him. I saw him scurrying out of there before and figured he'd come back, so I stationed some guards there to wait for him. Good thing I did, eh?" The guard didn't even listen.

He grabbed his sword and shot a glare at the other, screaming, "I'll KILL YOU!" But as soon as he lunged, the other guards came out, drew their swords and struck him down before he even got a foot near the other guard. Just as he was about to die, the guard shot up at the other guard and cursed him. And then, a guard plunged a blade into him followed by everyone else for good measure. Once they had finished mutilating his corpse, the other guard ordered for both their bodies to be thrown into the nearby river.

The guards obeyed and they grabbed what they could carry and dumped them both into and fast torrential river. Naturally afterwards, the other guard took over the throne and the traitors that helped him were all paid handsomely. But all their good fortune wasn't to last.

Something was wrong with their new leader and they meant this in every way. On his first night in power, he didn't sleep. He suffered from agonizing nightmares of being torn apart.

The next night, he screamed and pointed to an attacker who made an attempt to take his life but when his frightened servants looked to where he pointed, no one was there. But still, with each time he was left alone, he would scream at nothing over and over until a servant was forced to accompany him to his room.

And then finally, on the third night, his reign ended. As his maid entered to wake him up, she was horrified to find the new king in pieces on his bed. However, the gruesomeness didn't end there.

With each night that passed, each of the traitorous guards who helped in the chaotic coupe was found dead one by one in the same fashion in their homes until finally, the last of them was dead.

Initially, townspeople were scared for their lives. What sort of thing was doing this? What if it came after them? But after the last traitor died, the killings stopped.

Had it been the old warlord's ghost? Was he angry at the men he had trusted the most only to be deceived in the end? Perhaps it was the work of an intelligent loyalist to the king intending to avenge him. But since that day, the people were happy. The men who plundered the kingdom and killed so many to fulfill their own greed had paid for their crimes.

Still, the people mourned for their old king and more for the young prince who was as innocent as any child and deserved none of the torture his killers had forced him to undergo. But strangely enough, despite the fact he was dead, children who came into the forest swore on seeing a boy of the prince's description- his brown hair and silver eyes for which the prince was purely unique for. But it couldn't have been, for the children said the child was always sad and the prince was always happy.

But what baffled them more was the other young man they saw with the child. He carried a sword around and never left the child's side. Could it be the prince's guard? But the guard never seemed close to the prince at all so it couldn't be him.

In the end, the adults assured their children that it was simply a trick of the eye from the confusing darkness of the forest.

But is it really?

* * *

"So that's my story! What do you guys think?" a blue haired boy asked to his friends who all looked at him with a mix of apprehension and disgust.

"That was horrible!" A purple haired child cried out angrily.

"Hikaru's right! That was a horrible story, Kariya!" The smallest boy, donning a blue headband, yelled in agreement.

"It's a ghost story, Shinsuke! What did you expect?" Kariya yelled back but every other boy and three girls stared at him with the same horror-struck expressions.

"Still, that was too over the top!" A pink haired boy with two pigtails yelled at him. "Look! Hayami is muttering to himself again, and Shindou's shaking so much like its winter!"

Shindou, the brunette with wavy hair, was shaking all over, almost about to cry- not from fear of the story being true but from the brutality of the cold and senseless murders that those people were more than willing to commit like a human life meant nothing to them. It was a horrible way to go and he felt incredibly sad for the prince.

Everyone was in agreement and the fact that Kariya was the same age as them and yet he told the story like it was nothing was of great concern to them, even to Tsurugi who was the calmest and coldest of them all.

"You guys were the ones who wanted a story!" Kariya retorted and a red haired girl came and punched his head.

"Yes, but not a scary, gruesome one!" She snapped. "Look at Tenma! Your story was so bad it made his fever worse!"

The said boy was the most unfortunate of them all. You see, the children previously mentioned were part of a soccer club of their school. They were returning from a match when he fell ill and caught a fever and to top it all, their bus broke down, forcing them all to camp in the outskirts of the town where-would you know it- a large forest like the one in Kariya's story flourished.

"Why would you even tell one like that!?" She yelled at him.

"I just heard it from some old guy in the town! Don't blame me!" Kariya said.

"Hello everyone." A man wearing an orange headband, white short jacket and black jeans came by and greeted them. "So how is Tenma doing?"

"Worse! It's all Kariya's fault with his scary story!" Shinsuke cried.

"It's not!" Kariya defended. Still, the man went and checked up on the child shivering nearby and his fever had indeed gone up.

"I'll take him inside the bus so he can rest." He said. "And don't tell those sorts stories next time, Kariya. You know how jumpy Tenma gets."

"He wasn't even awake to hear it!" Kariya said, and the pink haired boy just punched his arm.

Once they left, the remaining children began arguing with Kariya. Unbeknownst to them, a figure inside the forest was watching them with particular interest, especially for the one named Tenma being taken inside to rest.

_Brown...silver...how beautiful._

* * *

_Inheritance_- In the past, if one were to successfully kill a warlord, the man responsible would inherit all he owned.

_Manju-_ Back then, instead of cakes, people steamed flour, rice powder or buckwheat with filling and sugar. They are then boiled together again and kneaded. Manju originally was called mantou, a kind of steamed bun originally from China. Nowadays, Mantou is small but in the past, used to be much larger.

_Cake- _is a form of bread or bread-like food. The guard called the manju a cake as it is a form bread. It's sweet and steamed but it's like a bread in some way.


	2. The Night

In the outskirts of town, there was a soccer team. They were returning home from a match when their van had broken down, leaving them all stranded. Worse, their friend Tenma had fallen ill as well.

While everyone was outside, some telling each other stories while others were scolding a mischievous Kariya for his disturbing tale, the ill Tenma was forced to remain inside the bus at the very back where the seat was the biggest; big enough to be a small bed and offered a proper place for him to rest for the night. Tenma still hated it though.

With his fevered body was burning up so high, he could barely see a thing that stood just an inch from him and the massive chaos going on inside of him was excruciating. The room felt so hot that he could barely breathe in the dry air but he didn't dare leave the covers. As dry as it was, the stagnant air in the room was still too cold to bear for the sickly child and he was already wrapped up snuggly within a thick, wool blanket. For Tenma, it was like getting trapped in a boiling pot of lava with a blizzard just waiting for you if you left its safety, basically a sick game of having to choose between being boiled alive or frozen to death.

Of course, none of that was actually true. Everything was at a perfectly reasonable temperature; not that cold but not that hot. But with a scorching fever of over a hundred, your senses do get muddled and blurry.

Tenma groaned as the world around him began spinning again in the form of a painful migrane. "Coach… someone….." wept Tenma as his head began to hurt. By chance, someone had heard and peered in through the bus' window to see Tenma shifting over inside in tears as he pulled whatever more cover he could grab a hold of untto himself.

But this someone was not one of his teammates or the coach Tenma was calling out to. The 'someone' went over to the bus' side to see if anyone was close by. Luckily, everyone was still busily talking with each other without a care in the world. With everyone so engrossed with the other, the 'someone' slunk back and returned to the window. It peeked through the window quietly again.

Now Tenma had calmed down a bit but he was still shivering vigorously. As Tenma did what he could to fall into slumber to sleep away the agonizing pain, he couldn't see that just across him, the very tiny hook that held the bus window down began to move ever so silently by itself until it fell completely in opposite way.

With nothing holding it down, the window began to move itself up without a creak…

***Yawn!*** went the smallest of them with his mouth wide open. He tried to cover it of course but his hands were just too small to.

"Where on Earth is Coach Endou?"

"I think he's still contacting our parents that we're going to be stuck here for the night, Shinsuke." A white haired boy with dark skin answered. Even though he was sitting the farthest from the group, leaning by on a tree, he was still loud enough to hear.

"Really, Kurama? I thought he had already told them." He said.

"We're still pretty far from home and it is really late." Shindou pointed out. "Maybe some of our parents might not even be at home because they're working late so he's probably doing what he can to inform everyone. He has to inform the school about this too."

"Speaking of late, maybe we should all go to bed. It's very late and we might have to wake up early tomorrow." said a girl with short blue hair who was still in her uniform as she had no other change. This wasn't meant to be a whole day thing. At most, it would have taken about as long as a normal field trip so no one was prepared to camp out overnight and it was guaranteed to be a very uncomfortable night- for the boys at least.

The redhead from before came out with another meek girl whose brown hair had been tied to pigtails with a round thing at hand. She pulled the string and threw it over for it to burst into a tent that could very well house them all comfortably.

"A tent? No fair! Why do you guys have to sleep somewhere else?" Kariya muttered out loud.

The fiery one threw a rock at him and yelled, "What did you say, you pervert!?"

"What!? No! I didn't mean it that way!" Kariya yelled, realizing the other interpretations of his words. But the pink-haired just wagged his fingers at him.

"Kariya! You should know better than that!" He scolded with a laugh.

"Oh, I'm sorry Miss Kirino, maybe you can- oh right, you're a guy." Kariya snapped back, popping a vein in Kirino's head because his gender had always been an object of annoyance to him. He was a boy! Why was it so hard for people to get that!? His best friend Shindou was very well aware of his friend's feelings and quickly pulled him down to calm him. It didn't help to see Kariya smirking victoriously just across them.

"Come on, you two, don't start." He said. "Tenma's just asleep inside the bus. We wouldn't want to make his fever worse."

"Fine, fine, Captain." Kariya said, "and Missy." Kirino snapped but knew better than to react and start disarray that would disturb their teammate so he grabbed his jacket and stormed inside the bus to sleep early. Shindou tried to calm his friend again before glaring at Kariya who looked like he was having a good laugh inside.

He frowned and was about to go and scold him when Kirino came outside again, saying out loud, "Hey, guys, where's Tenma?"

"What?" Shindou said as he went inside to check. There were nothing but empty seats and a window wide open. "Didn't Coach Endou put him inside?" The two went around to check if Tenma had just decided to hide under the seats or something, but the bus was completely empty inside. The others outside had begun to grow worried and Shindou went out the door again and asked if Sangoku could open the luggage hold. Sangoku was the goalkeeper and the oldest of them all, but he still had a lot of respect for the younger captain and obeyed. But when they did, it was also empty.

"Maybe he got better and decided to take a walk?" A tanned boy wearing goggles on his head suggested but Shindou shook his head.

"But the door and the window were open. Also, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have gotten far with his fever, Hamano." Shindou explained. "Anyway, we all would've noticed."

"But still, it wouldn't hurt to go look around for him." A burly boy suggested. "He isn't here so he has to be somewhere else."

"Okay, Kuramada. Just in case, let's look around, but two people stay behind in case he's here somewhere." Shindou consented. "Hikaru, Amagi, can you two stay here and watch the bus?" Hikaru and the big Amagi nodded their heads. Shindou looked to the rest of them. "Let's split into groups of two." He said.

"I swear, he really does know to make a mess of things." Kurama sighed but no one paid attention to him. After the groupings were set, they separated in search for their sickly friend. It was around eleven twenty when they started. Four hours later at three in the morning, they returned to the bus and when Hikaru and Amagi shook their heads sadly to them, they had realized that their friend Tenma had vanished.

Just as the situation dawned on them, Hikaru remembered something and spoke up, "Oh yeah, coach came back while you guys were out." Hikaru said with an embarrassed laugh. "He went off to look for him. He said to tell you guys to wait and rest here once you came back." Everyone looked at each other, realizing there wasn't much they could do now and it was so late, too.

"Let's call the police before we sleep." Nishiki suggested. He was among the older ones as well. He had tanned skin and a long ponytail. He had an easy going attitude. But in situations like this, he would become a little more serious and it showed.

"There's no need for that." Amagi said. "Coach already did. He had to run up and find a good signal before he could though."

"Wait, really?" Kariya said before checking his own phone, and it was only then that he noticed there was absolutely no reception where they were. No wonder coach was gone for so long earlier.

"Let's do as coach said and rest here then." Shindou said with a frown.

"What? No, we have to keep looking for Tenma!" Shinsuke protested, but everyone gave each other a sympathetic glance.

"Shinsuke, I know how you feel," Shindou said. "Believe me, if I could I'd search the town over and over again until we've found Tenma but we're too tired to keep on searching and it's too dark to find anything. Like it or not, there's really not much we can do now but wait." Shinsuke was disheartened. Not just by the fact that they weren't going to keep on searching but because he knew that the captain was right. He was pretty tired and so was everyone else. It didn't help that they played an exhausting match earlier with extra time to break their tied points which only ended with another tie resulting with a penalty shoot-out.

"Don't worry. If he isn't back by tomorrow, we can try looking for him again." Sangoku assured, which was enough to make an anxious Shinsuke smile. They all knew how close friends he was with Tenma, you'd never see them apart. Everyone smiled, feeling a little better themselves, and they all decided to turn in for the night. They said no words except for, 'Good night', or something like that and went back to their respective sleeping quarters and laid out their sleeping bags to rest in, where they lied until one by one, they soon fell asleep.

"Shindou, you still awake?" Kirino asked tiredly to his friend.

"Yes, Kirino. I can't sleep." Shindou said.

"Are you worried about him?" Kirino asked with a yawn. "You know how Tenma is. Maybe we're all worried about nothing. Maybe he did feel better and decided to just wander off on his own or something. He's fine."

"Yeah… you're probably right." Shindou said with a frown, but he couldn't stop being worried for some reason even though he knew Tenma must be all right. Wherever he was.


	3. The Day

Despite how he looked, Tenma wasn't that ignorant of the situation to walk around while burning up with a fever. He literally wasn't even capable of thinking that as his fever rendered him bedridden. And if he felt better, he knew better than to wander away in a new place from everyone he knew, especially considering that they were going to leave once morning came so there wasn't any reason to walk off.

But the more Endou thought about it, the more worried he became because it was still a fact that Tenma was no longer around. That meant that the only explanation left was that someone might have taken him but that was too ridiculous, right?

He got the shock of his life when he came back to see only Hikaru and Amagi waiting for him in the bus. He was surprised really that anyone would still be up waiting for him at this hour but he was more shocked and worried to see that they were the only ones there.

Once they told him the situation, he left them for a while to find a proper reception to use his phone and called the police before he went to search on his own. He searched and scored the town until daybreak. Luckily, by this time everyone had returned and were safely sleeping in. But with Tenma still gone his mood had grown sour. Sleep deprivation made it worse but he had to pull himself through for their sake.

First thing to do: call Aki and the school and inform them of Tenma's disappearance. The thought itself was unbearable but he breathed in to calm down as he knew it was the right thing to do, even if it meant having to tell the worst news possible to one of his closest friends and possibly losing his job.

He could care less about his job since he wasn't too fond of the new principal and co-principal but he did care about hearing Aki cry over at the other end of the line and he did care if something happened to Tenma which now unfortunately may be a possibility to look at.

As he saw everyone sleeping, he couldn't find the heart to disturb them and so he took a piece of paper from the glove compartment and wrote there:

_** I'm going to go ask the police to see if they have anything regarding Tenma's whereabouts. I'll remain here until the situation is resolved.**_

_**You all go ahead and return home. The driver is currently resting at the Wooded Inn. Go and tell him to drive you all home without us. I've left some money in the glove compartment for gas, food, or anything that might come up.**_

_**Call me once you've arrived back safely or if anything comes up.**_

_**Coach Endou.**_

Yes. That's about it, and all in neat handwriting, a contrary to his grandfather's.

He placed the note on Shindou's closed, sleeping eyes so when he awoke, he would definitely see his letter. He was the most responsible one he could leave the note with and anyway, how could anyone not notice a letter on top of them once they wake up?

With everything settled, he quietly took his belongings and left to go to the police station.

"Mnh…." Kirino groaned as he woke up. It was a fair sleep for hours lying on steel. How many hours had it even been since their failed search for Tenma?

The sun was up and shinning so at least that was a good sign that he managed to obtain the minimum amount hours of sleep he needed. To make sure though, he looked around lazily for his phone or something with hands or digits to see if perhaps he could rest his eyes for a couple of more minutes longer before he managed to catch a piece of white parchment lying on his best friend's face, though it took a few more minutes for the oddness of it to register into his still half-asleep mind. Once it did, he clumsily ran his hand to take the paper and had a look. He actually missed the paper by a centimeter before realizing it.

"I'm going to go ask….. until the… resolve….. go home…" Kirino tiredly read, but soon, he realized the words the letters on the paper formed and in a minute, his mind snapped fully awake. He nudged his friend's shoulder to wake him up; who responded with a tired groan as he waved an arm and pushed his hand away.

"…Five more…" Shindou muttered.

"Shindou, wake up. It's already morning." Kirino said quietly to keep from disturbing everyone else who were still asleep.

"…Ugn…wha? Kirno? What is it?" Shindou asked, mispronouncing his pink-haired friend's name, but Kirino let it slide and just flapped the paper out in front of his eyes. Shindou looked at it with a tired expression before reading the paper. Once he finished, it took a few minutes before he realized what he just read.

"We aren't doing it!" Was what every single one of them answered, and their captain couldn't have agreed more. They couldn't leave, not with Tenma still not around.

"But our families are expecting us home today." Ichino pointed out. He had blue eyes but the most noticeable feature of his were the two peculiar streaks of red on the side of his otherwise white hair. Was it natural or dyed? For some reason, no one really cared that much too ask. "It's not that I'm against the idea of continuing to search for Tenma or anything but if we don't go back, won't Coach Endou get into a lot of trouble because of it?"

That was a very good point that none of them had thought about. They liked Coach Endou and they didn't want him to lose his job because of them. Besides, knowing their cheapskate principals, they would probably get stuck with some random slob.

"Wait, how long does it take to go back to Inazuma Town?" Aoyama asked. He was Ichino's closest friend even though they were opposite in many ways. Both his eyes and hair were black and everywhere Ichino went, you would be certain to see him right beside him. "Maybe we can search for a while before we go."

Luckily, there was a road map under the driver's seat, and after some number crunching which includes the following: S_peed limit*distance/speed while taking into account the different speed limits they would pass+ estimate time it would take for eighteen people to-wait, was it speed limit*speed/distance?_

_No, that wasn't right. They also had to take into account the driver so that's…wait, what about traffic? And what about gasoline stops in case they ran out of fuel? So that's 10+(4*19)+75*100,000- Oh no, that's one zero too many-_

Oh, who were they kidding!? None of this made sense to them! They were middle school students, not high school students who knew algebra like the back of their hands! They finally gave up.

"My head hurts…" Shinsuke whined. "Is it multiplied or divided by velocity?"

"I think it's multiplied by velocity." Hikaru guessed.

"No, I think it's divided by speed." Amagi cut in.

"They're the same thing!" Kurama said. Shindou's head was spinning by now as well. He had been tinkering with the calculator over and over and he wasn't sure how close they were exactly to the correct answer. He looked up at Sangoku, but even though he was the oldest, math wasn't exactly one of his strong points and so he sadly shook his head.

"Why don't we ask one of the locals?" Sangoku suggested instead. "Maybe one of them might know?"

"Yes!" Everyone agreed immediately in unison. You could tell math wasn't a very popular subject among them and as long as they didn't have to do math anymore, it was fine by them. Anyway, they could search for Tenma while they were at it. Surely at least one person's seen him. How hard was he to miss?

"Let's go in two's like last night so we can cover more ground." Shindou said. He was about to go to Kirino again to be his partner but Akane jumped when she heard what he said and ran up to him like a mad dog then latched on fast like a hawk.

She was usually so quiet but there were certain rare occasions wherein she transformed into something frightening. It was enough to even frighten Shindou but he just didn't have the heart to say no to her and so they left, leaving Kirino by himself.

He could always go look for another partner but everyone else was a lot faster than he thought. Aoi and Shinsuke were the first to leave for obvious reasons and left little but a dust trail in sight.

Hayami and Hamano were the best of friends and so they grouped together and left pretty quickly along with Ichino and Aoyama. Soon, it was Midori, the fiery-tempered manager with Nishiki; then Hikaru and Amagi.

Kurama didn't want to go with Tsurugi for personal reasons and so he followed Sangoku off, since he wasn't willing to babysit Kurumada either. So that left just Kurumada, Kariya, and Tsurugi. With the number having dwindled down to three so quickly, Kirino scraped the idea of picking someone altogether and just grabbed the first person he could and took off.

"…."

"Wow. Senpai runs a lot faster now." Kariya said before looking towards the other person. "Aren't you going to say something, Tsurugi?"

"Are we just going to sit here talking or are we going to go find Tenma?" Tsurugi asked, going straight to the point. One could tell just how worried he was despite his cool demeanor.

"Last I went, it took about two hours." The man answered and the two boys thanked him.

"Two hours? I thought it would've at least taken five hours or something." Kariya said to Tsurugi, but the striker didn't say anything back. He was too busy looking around, obviously trying to find Tenma among the crowd passing by.

"You're really that worried about him?" Kariya laughed. "Once we find Tenma, I'm sure he's going to laugh when I tell him-" Tsurugi turned and punch him hard in the arm that made Kariya yelp as he glared madly at him before turning and resuming his search.

"It's only natural I am." He said. "Even though he's an idiot, he isn't this stupid to go off while he's sick."

"So what? You think he was abducted or something?" Kariya asked. "No one here knows him. What would they have to gain from taking him?"

"…Maybe it's because of the tournament." Tsurugi suggested off the bat. "You don't know. Maybe someone thinks he's worth that much as ransom or maybe a crazy fan might have done it."

"Now you sound like a conspiracy theorist." Kariya said. "Look, I'm worried about him, too, but I doubt any of those things could have happened. If they wanted ransom then they would've targeted Shindou, and if it were a crazy fan, they would've targeted you."

"What does that mean?" Tsurugi asked with a slight twitch from the comment.

"I'm just saying." Kariya answered to calm him down, but that answer was even worse and Tsurugi could have beaten him up right there and then; but that would mean getting caught by the police and having to stay a bit longer.

…On second thought-

"Excuse me there, lad." An old voice greeted behind him that made Kariya revert back to his 'innocent self' as Tsurugi called it before he turned to greet the old man.

"Oh, it's you." He said.

"Kariya, who's this?" Tsurugi asked.

"Remember the local I told you who told me about the ghost story last night?" Kariya asked to which Tsurugi lazily nodded. "He's the one who told me."

The senior looked about sixty or so but he stood bent over a little bit with a slight hunch as a cane in one hand supporting him a bit, despite the fact that he didn't look very frail either. His muscles were very much visible which made Tsurugi wonder if this man was a hunter.

"So this is your other friend?" The old man asked warmly. "Where're your other ones from last night?"

"They're looking around for a friend of ours who wandered off last night." Kariya answered.

"Really?" The old man gasped and his body began quivering all over, startling the two as they jumped back. "W-which was it? Who was it?"

"Um, uh," Kariya stammered. Just what had happened to him? He was so friendly a while ago but now… "H-He's one of the ones who came looking for me while you were telling me that story. The one with the weird, loopy-"

"Brown hair and silver eyes?" The old man finished with a startle. "Was it-"

"Yes, that's him." Kariya answered, now worried.

"N-no…" the old man muttered in shock, his entire body shivering. "Not again."

"Um, is everything all right?" Kariya asked but Tsurugi quickly blocked him.

"I think we should just leave this guy." Tsurugi whispered. "He's obviously some crackpot."

"Even so-" Kariya retorted, about to suggest calling an ambulance to take this man away until the old man walked towards them but with no longer the hearty smile he had just a while ago. His face was black and stormy. Kariya and Tsurugi froze in place as he approached them.

"Do you remember what I told you yesterday about the forest?" He asked in a gloomy voice.

"Uh, uhm, er, you said it was cursed?" Kariya shakily answered.

"Exactly." The old man said. "What happens there?"

"Uh, I don't really…" Kariya said as he tried to remember the rest. "Actually, I think I forgot-"

"You forgot!?" The old man growled, sending Kariya running behind Tsurugi who readied himself against the madman.

"Calm down!" Tsurugi snapped. His words managed to register to the old man. He quickly curled back looking ashamed but as serious as ever.

"My apologies." The old man said. "However, I'm afraid I must tell you now that it might be better to give up the search for your friend now. I guarantee you that there is no saving him now from his fate."

"What are you talking about?" Tsurugi asked.

"I'm saying, that you're friend is dead." The old man answered. "There is no way of saving him."


	4. The Idea

Sorry for the previous chapter. The old man grieving was hard to get.

* * *

"On May 3, a young boy, Shi Hajime went missing near that forest. Three days later, some campers discovered his corpse was floating down the river. He had brown hair and silver eyes.

It has been two months since that fateful day and just yesterday, the so called 'Wandering Knight' as the locals it, has claimed a fourth victim. A young daughter of a local couple disappeared and then three days later her corpse was found floating down river. She also had brown hair and silver eyes…"

Shindou read the article over and over, wishing this wasn't real. The article was regarding a past stream deaths that many years ago.

The only real reason why the body count had been so low was because the chances of a child coming and having brown hair and silver eyes were very slim. Unfortunately, Tenma was exactly one of those slim chances.

"From what I could gather, the killings began forty years ago and around ten years ago, a total of twelve children were killed in the same fashion. They are abducted and then killed exactly three days later." Tsurugi answered as calmly as he could. In truth, he was about ready to head into the forest to find the guy responsible and beat him with Kensei Lancelot until he told him where Tenma was.

For Shindou, he wanted to tear the newspaper up! He couldn't believe it! Of all the places their bus had to break down, it had to be at a town where a crazed serial killer was loose!

"Shindou, don't! We might need that paper later!" Kirino said as he tried to calm his friend down as he took the paper from him. He could see how agitated he was since he got the phone call from Kariya.

That fact alone gave Kirino some doubts as to whether the call was truthful or not until he heard something he had never heard before in Kariya's voice; genuine fear. And to hear Tsurugi actually back him up was the worst thing they could hear.

Now everyone was at their breaking point. Even if Tenma stood a chance of fighting back and escaping with all the hissatsu techniques that he knew he needed to be healthy to be able to do all that and by sheer luck-a great awful luck-he had to fall ill with a 110-degree fever!

Some of them wanted to go try looking for Tenma in the forest but was too dangerous to. During that, the usually impish Kariya had grown very quiet since they came back and just sat there beside himself. It even worried Kirino as he had never seen him like this before. As uneasy it was to admit, at least when he was busy crafting plots to play against him he looked very happy. Now he looked like he wanted to jump off somewhere.

Kirino himself was doing his best to keep it together.

"Hey, why does that old guy have so many of these newspaper articles anyway?" Kirino asked Tsurugi. "I mean, if they've stopped, anyone would've thought he just disappeared and all. But he kept it for forty years."

"Yeah, I thought that too." Tsurugi answered. "Until he said…"

"_It's the ghost! He's the one behind the killings! The wretched monster! Because they look like that boy doesn't mean everyone looking like him is him! Why even go as far as to kill them? I don't care! Because of him…my little angel. My dear sweet angel…"_

"Oh." Kirino said, now feeling bad.

"At least now we know why he was so jumpy when we told him about Tenma." Tsurugi said. "I think anyone in his shoes would be scared out of their minds if it started happening again."

And Tsurugi meant every word of that because the articles weren't all very forth coming regarding the children's demises. He read everyone and only a few told of a more heart-wrenching story: that each child was tortured and raped before they died.

Tsurugi had always been a realist and he was sure that whatever is behind the tragedies is much human. But this also meant Tenma would definitely be killed once the three days were up and it was already almost the second day!

Tsurugi was tearing himself apart as he thought harder and harder of how to find Tenma before he would be added on the list of children claimed by the so called specter he was only a child. What could he do?

When the old man told them about the killings, they ran out and told the first police officer they could find about Tenma but he only responded in a grim tone that they already knew from a caller from earlier that morning. They guessed it must've been Coach Endou. Who else could it have been?

But when they asked if there was anything they could do to help, he only told them three things: Keep quiet about what they knew to keep from panicking the locals, go anywhere far from the forest where it was safe, and lastly, expect the worst as all the children were tortured, raped and killed by this time.

It was the most disheartening news they could get. Whoever had gotten to Tenma was probably forcing him to do sick, twisted things under a promise to let him go or maybe he was already killing him, relishing on Tenma's desperate pleas to let him live. All that could be happening while they were sitting around in the bus. It was an unbearable possibility for the ex-SEED as he had a number of sins himself weighing on his shoulder, one particularly felt more agonizing now. This situation wasn't what he meant. He didn't want Tenma die.

And as the captain, Shindou wasn't spared from anguish Tsurugi was going through. His head began racing to come up with different ideas to find Tenma somehow but they didn't even have a clue as to where he was. All the bodies were disposed of somewhere at the river which started upstream from multiples of branches of other, smaller creeks and streams which riddled an entire mountain that was covered with eight thousand acres of wooded territory.

It was like trying to one specific needle within a pile of other needles within five minutes. It wasn't humanly possible! As his thoughts dwindled, he began wondering of how exactly they could tell his cousin about this.

I'm sorry? One of us should have stayed with him? We had no idea that there was a demented serial killing ghost on the loose who targeted children who looked like Tenma?

Each one was absolutely worse than the last before it!

And then…an idea popped into his head. A horrible, horrible idea but he couldn't just stay there doing nothing!

"Kirino…" Shindou finally spoke and the defender was right there beside him.

"Yes? What is it, Shindou?" Kirino asked attentively, just glad he was finally talking again as it had been hours but soon his smile changed and he couldn't believe what he just heard.

"You…you want lure the ghost to kidnap you?"


	5. The Call

Thanks: AniSeanna for being my beta-reader despite her busy schedule.

FlameWriter17 for helping with the first few chapters.

Sorry if some things are off. Economics isn't my strongest point.

* * *

This was a horrible idea. It was stupid, flawed…it wouldn't work.  
"Kirino."  
And once this was over and done with, he would give Shindou an earful.  
"Kirino."  
"I heard you the first time." Kirino answered in cold fashion.  
"Then why didn't you answer me?" Shindou asked worriedly.  
Kirino didn't even look at him and just stayed where he was, facing away towards the school van which was now several miles away, now the size of a pocket book looking at it from his position.  
"Why don't you take those weird things off first?" Kirino asked.  
"Kirino, you know I won't do that." Shindou answered even though he wanted to as it felt strange. It was his first time wearing such things and he hoped he wouldn't have to in the future as they were a bit uncomfortable.  
The weird things his friend was referring to was the grey contact lenses over his brown irises which he had bought in a small store in town.  
Seeing them on his friend… To see his normal brown eyes grey made Kirino feel off and for Shindou, tense. He had felt that way since they had gone up the woods secretly.  
There was no absolute way that he would have told the team about this plan. Even if it was for Tenma, they would never have agreed to something this reckless. He knew he wouldn't have which made the situation a bit funny and ironic considering that every bit of it was his idea.  
He didn't say anything more and simply fastened the rope around his waist, just as a precaution.  
He wasn't very sure of the idea of a ghost being responsible for the abductions happening but it didn't hurt to be careful.  
He handed to other end to Kirino who reluctantly took it but still refrained from making eye contact with Shindou.  
"It isn't going to work." Kirino said in an annoyed tone.  
"Then there shouldn't be anything to be worried about." Shindou assured with a smile though it did little to faze Kirino. "I'll be back soon. If anything happens-"  
"Nothing will happen." Kirino cut in rather sourly, looking at the thick forest. "It's just trees and more trees. You just said it yourself; there's nothing to worry about."  
"…Yeah. You're right." Shindou said. And with that Shindou began taking first few steps up, stopping briefly to look back to see Kirino who was still cross with him for dragging him into this affair. He didn't look at him and Shindou whispered to him silent apology before continuing on.  
It was a pretty steep slope that Shindou was beginning to climb. It wasn't long before he started having some trouble and when Kirino turned to see how he was, he was gone.  
He huffed and looked away.  
Kirino wasn't unmindful. He knew that his actions weren't how he usually was. It was very rare for him to be like this, especially when he was in front of his best friend.  
"This is really too stupid…" Kirino complained. Chasing a ghost? Really?  
There was no doubt in his mind that he would find nothing and in a few minutes, he would come back empty handed and Kirino would give him an earful for his brainless actions.  
…but if that was the case, Shindou did have a point.  
There was nothing to worry about. So why was he so mad with him then?

* * *

"Thank you." Endou said with his eyes barely open and the officers around in the precinct couldn't help but notice with worry.  
"Um, are you okay, sir? Maybe you rest for a moment." One of them came up to him and suggested.  
"Yeah, you're probably right." Endou said groggily before leaving the building. He admitted that they had point and he will rest. After Tenma was found that was.  
Still, he couldn't believe this! A serial killing targeting children!? And what are the odds Tenma had to match it?!  
Endou cursed as he made his way around, looking at his phone which seemed to glare at him now with an intense. It was inevitable he had to this and he sincerely wished that the police had found Tenma by this point so he'd have better news to tell her.  
Anything really, even Tenma just deciding without thinking to run around would have been better but in the end, it looks he'll have to make the call after all.  
A low thunder rumbled somewhere far away. Endou looked up to see a storm cloud. Now even Mother Nature was cruelly taunting him on his failure.  
He ran quickly and managed to find himself some cover under a nearby café's retractable roof, laid out to help defend from the downpour. From drizzle, it began raining harder and in a few seconds, it poured down by the _barre_l. He could barely make out what was beyond the millions of droplets in front of him.  
He flipped open the phone and bit his lip.  
"Why me?" he lamented and he dialed her phone number on the buttons and waited until finally she picked up the phone with a peppy voice as she was always an optimistic person much like him but he could still sense a hint of worry in her tone.  
"Endou? Hey!" Aki greeted happily. "So how was the match? Tenma must have hyped the entire time."  
As Aki happily made conversation, she was busy filling Sasuke's food bowl with canned dog food as the canine waited patiently for his bowl to be fed but it had to admit, it still wasn't used to having to take food from someone else other than his master, especially since Tenma had always made his meals by hand.  
Tenma pampered him in that way but since they moved, he had to eat nothing but canned meals. So he whined longingly when he heard the mention of his master's name.  
"So where is he? Wasn't he supposed to be back yesterday?" Aki asked as she pet Sasuke in hopes to make the dog calm down.  
"Um, yes, sorry about that, Aki. The bus broke down last night so we had to stay over here for the night." Endou said. The last thing he wanted to do was rush into the devastating news too quickly. As he dragged the conversation out, he mentally flipped through as much words as he could recall, doing his best to choose the right ones carefully to bring her the news in the least painful way he could try.  
"It broke down? Everyone must be tired then." Aki said worriedly. Sasuke continued whining, prodding her leg so he could maybe hear his master's voice over at the other end of her phone.  
"Ssh, boy!" Endou could hear Aki say over at the other end.  
"Aki?" Endou asked and Aki quickly got up from the pavement and went inside, shutting the door and leaving the whining dog out. Sasuke sighed dejectedly and simply went back to eating his canned meal. It wasn't that bad but he did miss his master's meals.  
"Sorry about that," Aki quickly apologised. "That was Sasuke. Sometimes he just gets so anxious if he doesn't see Tenma for a long time. Even if it doesn't seem like it, he's really attached to Tenma and I don't think he's used to Tenma disappearing periodically."  
Endou frowned when he heard her say that. He had forgotten that there were plenty more waiting for Tenma at his home.  
He took a deep breathe and held himself as best as he could.  
"Aki," he started off shaking. "Something happened while we were staying over. Tenma fell ill and then he suddenly disappeared while I was away for a bit."  
Aki blinked but she let out a small chuckle. "I'm sorry but what did you say?" she asked.  
"Tenma's disappeared." Endou repeated himself, his fists now shivering.  
Aki sighed to herself. She was surprised at how easily Endou could get so worried, not realizing the true gravity of the situation.  
"Well, maybe he felt better and decided to go exploring?" she suggested to calm him and that was something Tenma would do. She could still remember how she had to go and pick him up at the other side of town simply because he wandered excitedly all the way there, getting himself lost in the process. She never did let him forget about that.  
Endou was well aware that Aki wasn't seeing the whole picture. If he could, he'd leave things that way, apologize for overreacting, and the two would laugh the incident while he knew at the back of his mind that she would probably bring it up and tease him for it at a later point in the future.  
But that wasn't the right thing to do, was it?  
"Aki," Endou said, holding his forehead down with a tight squeeze that pinched. "Tenma wasn't… He wasn't the first child to disappear in this town. There were others before him."  
"Eh?" Aki said, now with a lump in her throat and she began to feel anxious.  
"I just talked with the police and they told that there have been a string of…" Endou said, stopping for a moment as he found it nearly unbearable to continue. But he had to. "A string of child abductions throughout the years in the past. All of them are… They're dead."  
Aki's heart dropped in that moment and she screamed. "What!?" she cried. She was shaking so much that even Endou could hear it all the way at the other end.  
"Aki, calm down-" he tried to soothe but Aki wasn't listening anymore.  
"What happened, Endou!?" She asked frantically. "Where is he? Is he hurt? Did-"  
"Aki!" Endou yelled through the end. Aki stopped with her frenzy of questions. On the other end, Aki was practically hyperventilating. This…this was too overwhelming for her.  
She burst into tears, just as Endou had predicted but the sting of it was worse than he imagined.  
"Please tell me that he will be back soon at least." Aki begged from Endou but even the once proud goalkeeper wasn't sure could do that.  
"I'm sorry, Aki. It's…It's my fault. I should've been more careful." Endou apologized. "I'll try me best but I can't promise…"  
He couldn't bring himself to finish.  
Aki just nodded on the other end, tears still falling down on the wooden floor from her eyes.  
"Okay." She said. "Just call me if anything happens."  
"Don't worry. I will." Endou said before hanging up. He tucked the phone into his jacket.  
The rain was still pouring as hard as ever. It must have been only five minutes but if felt like hours had passed.  
"Excuse me," a woman suddenly called him from behind and she held an eager smile on her face with a menu in her hands. Her eyes were practically sparkling.  
"Good morning!" she greeted which confused the coach.  
"But it's three pm." He pointed out and the eager smile disappeared and she gasped in shock but quickly smiled again with her lips shaking and her face sweating this time.  
"O-of course! Good afternoon, mister! Would you like a seat?" she asked.  
Endou gave her an odd look. He wasn't in much mood to eat and he was about to decline when he heard his intestines growl.  
He couldn't afford to go on searching for Tenma if he could barely stand on his own two feet.  
"What's there?" he asked and the girl brightened.  
"The Town Special serves with a huge bowl of hot steaming with beautifully roasted, barbecued pork raised in a our farms here! And it comes with a refreshing salad using fresh vegetables from our patch just behind the building and the citrus tea will restore even the weariest soul!" she explained with the stars in her eyes practically popping to him which scared Endou a bit. She was like-  
"So? How about it? Will you buy it?" she continued. "Or how about our crunchy chicken sandwich? You won't regret when you taste that-"  
"Okay, okay." Endou said. He was smiling but was incredibly overwhelmed by the small lady's forwardness. "How much does it cost?"  
"Oh, um, the special is only ¥700 and the chicken sandwich is ¥250." She answered.  
"Okay then. I'll have both to go." He said, handing her a thousand yen bill and she was ecstatic and she ran in the building happily. In ten minutes, she came out with a paper bag and some coins on hand and shoved them into his arms.  
"Thank you and come again!" she said before running off, leaving Endou sweating a bit.  
During his school year in Raimon Junior High, his teammates and friends had always reprimanded him for being so high strung. Was he like this as a child?  
"If that's the case, I guess I should apologies to them when I get the chance." Endou told himself. "It must have been dealing with me like that everyday."  
He looked and it was still raining. Endou took out the sandwich and ate it with a smile. It had been a very, very, _very_ long time since he had eaten real food and the waitress wasn't exaggerating. The chicken sandwich was crunchy, juicy, and good.  
And just then, the bell rang and two customers, a boy and a girl, came out the building with umbrellas on hand.  
"So what did you think?" the girl asked and the boy just shrugged.  
"Ok, I guess. The chicken sandwich wasn't bad but it wasn't anything special." He said as opened up his umbrella.  
Endou watched them as they left, remembering his earlier comment.  
"Or maybe my tongue is exaggerating from not eating anything edible in such a long time." He groaned. He hoped that wasn't it but was he sure that was exactly it.  
Endou sat down and began opening up the rest of his food to eat.  
"Come to think of it…" Endou thought, looking at his food. A scene flashed in his head. Besides him, there was one other person who wiling put up and ate his wife's cooking other than him.  
Certainly it was not one of his old teammates. They were too smart for that.  
The sound of rain pattering on the ground began to fade and it was then, Endou saw the afternoon sun finally emerge from hiding behind the dark clouds.  
Endou glanced at the meal before packing it again and stuffed it carefully into the bag and got up.  
"Well, let's see if I can find anything at the campsite." Endou said. And perhaps he could look around the forest while he was at it. The police told him not to but it couldn't be helped if he _wandered in_ and _got lost_.  
Endou was almost there when he noticed the bus still parked where it was.  
"Wh-Didn't I tell them to leave?" Endou said to himself and when he came closer, he saw his students together though it seemed that they more…disarrayed?  
And out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Kirino, curled up in a ball under a tree, much farther away then everyone else.  
He could sense quickly that something was wrong and so he stealthily approached Kirino whom he knew was among the most level-headed of the team who would definitely be calm enough to tell him the problem with accurate detail.  
None of the other children noticed him and he came towards Kirino worriedly who was still curled up and oblivious to his presence.  
"Hey, Kirino." Endou greeted, crouching down to the boy's level but he was surprised to see Kirino jump as a reaction to his usual gesture with his eye swollen and face wet, indicating that he had been crying for a while. It made him feel uneasy  
"Is something wrong, Kirino? Did anything happen?" Endou inquired.  
Instead of giving him an answer, the young boy jumped at him and held his jacket tightly and he began crying hard.  
"I'm sorry! It's my fault!" Kirino screamed sobbing into his chest and he continued cry, saying it over and over again to the baffled coach who was too confused to help him and quickly held his shoulders and pushed him away.  
"Kirino, calm down!" Endou said. "What happened? I can't help you if don't tell me the problem."  
Kirino couldn't stop crying. As much as he wanted and he tried, he just couldn't stop. The weight of the guilt was too unbearable for him.  
"He's gone." He answered. "S-Shindou was taken."  
All this Kirino told to the horrified coach as he tightly held a rope in his hand, the end severed neatly.

* * *

_Barrel_- One of several units of volume though how much one barrel holds depends and ranges from 100-200 litres.


	6. The Ghost

**Author's Note:** Thanks to AniSeanna for doing this fast.

* * *

He was mad. No, he was furious. If Shindou was here, he would have kicked a soccer ball to his stomach.

When Kirino told him what had happened, he scolded him harshly before comforting him as warmly as he could. Afterwards, he returned to the caravan to check on the other children who were all taking the news as hard as Kirino was.

Once they had all calmed down, they told him everything that had happened since they had awoken that morning. How their separate investigations went, what they had learned and what they had discovered. When all was said and done, Endou sighed before telling them bluntly for the last time; go home. As for him, he would stay a little longer but now to look into, not one, but two disappearances. Unfortunately, for better or worse, it seemed that they hadn't entirely learned their lessons as once he told them what he was planning to do, Shinsuke, Aoi, and Tsurugi begged to come with him. And they wouldn't back down until he had to finally give in, mostly out of sympathy. But he warned them straight, this was the last time he would let them off for disobeying him and the enraged expression on his face made it clear how serious he was with that threat. It gave them something to think about the next time they thought of disobeying him.

Now, they had split into four groups. Sangoku had offered to go and inform the police with Kurama following behind to accompany him while the rest of the others decided to spend some time elsewhere to deal with the news except Ichino and Aoyama who offered stayed inside the bus. After all, someone to had keep watch over it as it was their only transport home and more importantly, to make sure that no one else would the same idea as Shindou would enter the forest.

As for Endou, Shinsuke, Aoi, and Tsurugi, they were now walking around in town and the three children couldn't have been more frightened for their lives as they saw their usually jolly coach walking in front of them at groggy pace in stomps with a dark entity emanating from him.

"Um, Coach Endou?" Shinsuke piped but the man was unable to hear his meek voice so Shinsuke called out again a little louder, "Coach Endou!"

But yet again, the man did not hear him and Shinsuke had enough of being ignored.

"Coach!" Shinsuke yelled. The coach finally stopped, a sign he had heard him but when he turned, he had a dark complexion on his face and a piercing glare that shot into them right through.

"What?" he hissed and Shinsuke was retreated quickly as he shook uncontrollably.

"Uh, w-where are we…"he stammered. "I just want to know where're w-we're going, Coach."

"Huh? Oh, the museum." he answered which sent the three children to look at each other with a perplexed stare.

"The…museum?" Shinsuke asked. "Why are we going there?"

"As you have already learned, there is a legend in this town about a young prince and his guard." Endou explained. "According to the legend, it is said that the guard now takes children bearing resemblance to the prince though his motives vary with depending on the story. Some say he still bears a grudge against the prince and kills the children as thinks they are reincarnations of the prince. In others, it's because he feels guilty about the prince's death and is kidnapping and killing the children in a ritual to bring him back and let them take his place. Regardless, it seems the whole town is convinced he's the one responsible."

"But that's just an urban legend." Tsurugi said.

"Based from real events." Endou revealed to their astonishment and horror. "About a thousand years ago or so, there was a warlord who lived here until he was killed by rebelling guards and he had a son who was also killed in the town's forest. To be specific, his son was strangled to death before…well, I'm sure you already know what happens to him."

"W-what!?" Shinsuke yelled, now horrified by the new information, proving a link between the murders then and now. "He-so…! A ghost really is the one responsible!?"

Endou stopped at his pace and looked back at them to see their paled faces filled with worry.

"Shinsuke," Endou said to him crouching down to his level. "I need you to calm down. We don't know anything for sure. The facts are only that the legend here was based from a real event and that the townspeople firmly believe in it. Nothing more."

Shinsuke calmed down but he was still shaking anxiously as he agonized over the possibility of Tenma going up against something that you couldn't even touch or see. There was no defending yourself against that. Aoi herself was very worried and she looked over towards Endou.

"What do you think, Coach Endou?" she asked. "Do you think the ghost is responsible?"

Endou stood up with a perplexed face and he crossed his arms with a heavy sigh. "I believe in ghosts but until I find something tells me that a supernatural being is responsible for what's happening, I'm open to any suggestion."

"But wait, what does the story being based off a real event have to do with finding Tenma?" Tsurugi asked and Endou pointed out to the woods as he continued his explanation. "After he was…disembodied, his remains were placed in a bag and thrown into the river where it was discovered by some campers and was eventually brought to the museum by a team of archeologists. Since then, it's said to be haunted the spirit of the boy."

"H-haunted?" Shinsuke yelped.

"Yes and I suspect he may be the prince in the legend. That's why we're going there." Endou answered. "If the guard really is the one responsible, then maybe the prince might know something that could help us stop him."

"Is this a joke!?" Tsurugi yelled suddenly much to the surprise of the Aoi and Shinsuke who turned to him with gasp but the coach didn't even bat an eye.

"Ts-Tsurugi?" Shinsuke asked. Tsurugi didn't blame him for being surprised. He was as surprised as he was as it was rare for him to lose his temper like this and not only that, he was losing his temper over sick with worry about Tenma whom he would complain about on a daily basis but none of that really mattered now did it?

"We're going there to talk a ghost? Do you even hear yourself?" he asked. "Shouldn't we be going to the forest looking for him instead chasing a bunch of rumors and fantasies?!"

"Okay. Go ahead then." Endou answered with composed face and tone, clearly unfazed by Tsurugi's words. "But what will you do if you run into the kidnapper?"

"I'll fight him!" he answered and he didn't even stop think about it which only served to push Endou more over the edge.

"And how exactly? What if he has a weapon? You can't just rush him." Endou said with a stoic face and just before Tsurugi could answer, he continued on without giving him a chance to answer. "And what if Tenma was injured? Can you help him? What if you get injured yourself? What will you do then? And more importantly where do plan on starting your search? …"

Endou continued his barrage of questions. Each becoming more difficult than the last and he continued his inquisition until Tsurugi finally gave up trying to answer back at him. He couldn't answer any further questions and he looked very beaten down.

Endou sighed with relief that Tsurugi had finally gotten the message. Out of everyone, Tsurugi was the one he was worried about the most. Although he didn't realize it, in truth Tsurugi was just as impetuous as Tenma and at times even more it was no mystery as to why. Tsurugi was a loner and preferred to keep to himself rather than interact with the group. Endou rarely ever saw Tsurugi even try to reach to anyone else in the team other than a few and even towards them, he remained as cold as ever, saying little to no words at all.

This also meant he rarely ever expressed himself openly about his feelings or problems. Now that might not sound like much at first but the end result of keeping all that emotion, stress, and frustration bottled up without a proper release of some sort would inevitably be an explosion. All that was left to do really was to wait for something to trigger it and when it finally happened, the explosion would be huge and physical, something he had seen and heard about one too many times.

So now whenever he would begin losing his temper, Endou would just lie back and let him vent and curse at him as many times as he needed to before bringing him back down to reality.

"So no more back talk?" Endou asked and Tsurugi, having calmed down, nodded his head weakly. "So what do you plan on doing? Even if it sounds dumb, I'm going anyway. If you don't want to come, you're free to return to the caravan."

That, Tsurugi didn't answer, a hint that he still wasn't leaving. He looked over to Aoi and Shinsuke who had been sitting back quietly watching them for a while as if to ask them the same thing and they shook their heads quickly.

He groaned tiredly because he had hoped that they would want to leave by now but it seemed they were as obstinate as ever. It looked like he had taught them well. Maybe too well.

But there was nothing he could do about it now. He just turned with a grumble until they finally reached the museum within minutes and it was a sorry site to see. The whitewashed exterior walls had been dirtied and blotched and in front was a large, weathered teak double door with a rusty gilded doorknobs. Clearly age had caught up with the establishment and it was a shame to see it so worn down.

No one was outside and it didn't sound like there was anyone inside either. Endou went up to the door and pushed the left of the two doors and as he thought, it was like a ghost town inside. You could even hear a pin drop.

"It's absolutely empty." Aoi said. "I don't even see any staff workers around."

Everything was covered in dust. The walls, the cans, the glass cases… Everything. And then, the silence broke with a low but hardy voice.

"Ooh, welcome, visitors!" a man came and greeted them happily which proved to be rather frightening and suspicious to them as they retreated quickly from the man. "Do forgive me if I seem too forceful. It has been a very long time since real visitors have come here as you can plainly see and as this place's curator, it's an unbearable site. Now these days it's only occult fanatics who come to visit and it truly gets on my nerves."

"I'm sorry but 'occult fanatics'?" Endou asked.

"Yes. They come here to make contact with the so-called 'Museum Specter'." the curator explained. "They come here only to try to find it! That's really all why anyone comes here and I fear it'll only be time before it ends."

"Before it ends? What do you mean by that?" Aoi asked.

"Because they've never found anything." the curator answered. "Nothing out of the ordinary happens. There is no whispering voice here and there, there's no activity, no elctrowhatits or something… It's basically like no one is here. Hmph, like that needed to even be proved."

"But if you're upset with them coming, wouldn't it be a good thing if they stopped coming?" Shinsuke asked but the curator just sighed.

"It complicated, young man." he answered with a heavy sigh. "I don't like to see people only come in just to hunt for some fairy tale creature when this place was built to educate the masses but if it hadn't been for them, this place would have been closed down long ago."

It indeed sounded difficult to Shinsuke. It must be hard for the poor man.

"So there really is no ghost?" Endou asked. "Nothing ever happened since the remains of the Prince was brought in?"

"Well, I wouldn't say nothing." the man hissed angrily all of a sudden. "When those were brought in, we attracted tourists from all over! It was great for the opening but that night, while I was working a late shift, I heard some noises. I assumed it had another staff worker who had stayed behind until it went on for a while so I went in to ask them to keep it down and would you believe it?! The exhibit was a mess! The souvenir toys had been scattered all over the place and there was graffiti all over! Drawn with our own markers! I nearly screamed my head off when I saw the whole thing!"

"W-was it vandals?" Endou asked with some hesitance as he saw how enraged the curator was.

"Does it matter?!" the curator answered. "Once I find the hooligans responsible, ghost or not, I'm going make them pay dearly for the mess."

Endou could hear Shinsuke whimper behind him. This man was serious. If he kept true to his word and someone ended up dead, Endou wouldn't have been surprised.

"Oh, do forgive me for my little outburst just now." the curator suddenly said, doing his best to breath but his face was still as red as an apple. " Excuse me but I think a breath of fresh air is in order for me. Feel free to look around. No charge."

The curator left, leaving the four at a lost for words.

"At least we don't have to pay." Shinsuke said.

"I think it's his way of apologizing for his 'little' outburst." Endou explained.

"But from the sound of things, is this place even haunted?" Aoi asked with some relief. "The only strange thing that happened here sounds more like the work of vandalls."

"And if it is, it sounds like all the ghost wants to do is play tricks." Tsurugi said. "Not at all malevolent."

Endou, he felt a little disappointed by the information. This was really the only lead he had left to go by.

He supposed he could go back to the police station to see if anything new had come up or perhaps the library to look over the newspaper articles for a hint. Those sounded like the right steps to take as of now but something at the back of his mind continued to trouble him.

"Let's look around befor-" Endou said when he notice the chandelier hover just less than a few meters near Tsurugi's head.

"Tsurugi! Look up behind you!" Endou yelled. Tsurugi, confused turned in the direction and screamed as he jumped back, watching the tiny bulbs of the chandelier smash into tiny fragments.

Outside, the curator jumped at the sound and he was about to run inside to see what had happened until the doors slammed shut in front of him, locking itself in the process.

"Good heavens!" he screamed.

All at once, the windows suddenly all shut tight at once and the lights inside began flickering by itself quickly. The remaining doors inside began opening and slamming itself quickly as Shinsuke and Aoi screamed hid behind their coach.

"What is this!?" Endou yelled as he watched chaos unleashed in the room. It was like something out of a movie.

Tsurugi was too shocked by what was happening, so much he failed to notice a figure behind him; a mannequin from an exhibit upstairs garbed in the ancient clothing of a Japanese warrior with a sword at hand.

Tsurugi turned when he saw it, with a the expressionless face painted on it, advanced quickly towards him.

* * *

"Huff…huff….." Kirino gasped before collapsing against a tree to rest.

It was amazing what a person was capable of doing just for somebody else. It must have been two hours now but in that time he managed to make it to the deeper part of the woods, farther than he and Shindou had managed to go earlier that afternoon.

It took a few minutes but once he managed to relax, he stood up to continue onwards even deeper into the forest but not before carefully walking up the an edge of a cliff with his trusty flashlight to show him the way. And there in the distance was the Inazuma Caravan. He could still see a few of friends now gathered around it but he couldn't make out who they were.

"I'm sorry, everyone." Kirino muttered, well aware that no one would hear him.

He had snuck pass Ichino and Aoyama easily to get into the forest. No doubt they would have stopped him if they could but he couldn't just stay back knowing his best friend was just around the corner somewhere. By the least, he had to try.

And with that, the defender and continued on the dangerous journey, unaware that he would soon be next.

* * *

"Dark Angel!" he yelled as he kicked the mannequin back after narrowly dodging his blade. The mannequin flew back and smashed into pieces but it didn't look like it was done yet.

Tsurugi watched the mannequin's parts begging to move slowly towards him. Its partially smashed head gave the greatest disturbance as it rolled towards him. Tsurugi kicked quickly, smashing it to bits.

"I think we should leave!" Tsurugi yelled before a nearby bucket flew at him, but missing his head as he was running and watched it crash against the walls.

"How!?" Shinsuke yelled.

It was then Aoi noticed and emergency escape door just behind and pointed it out. "Over there! Come on!"

The four bolted out quickly and once they were safely outside, Endou and Tsurugi slammed the door shut. It looked like it was over, albeit they could still hear the chaos going on inside. But the fact it wasn't at least trying to chase them allowed them to catch a breath.

"Ghost! The place really is haunted!" Shinsuke cried, no doubt traumatized from what had happened. Aoi was shaking all over and Tsurugi didn't even say anything back. There was no diluting this fact now but Endou felt as though they had just missed something. And he kept wondering; why now?

There was no activity before so only now did this happen?

Their moment of rest was cut when they heard something ringing from the inside.

"What was that?" Shinsuke yelled in fright.

"It sounds like a phone ringing." Tsurugi answered. The four's eyes popped open wider and they quickly searched themselves and to Endou's dismay, he found his pocket empty of a phone. So now it was inside ringing…

"Wait," Endou said. "Does anyone hear that?"

The three children looked at each other in confusion. They tried focusing but all they could hear was the phone ringing. And they realised it.

"Why is it so quiet?" Tsurugi asked.

The four peered inside through the window and they were surprised to see peaceful it was inside. Everything was a mess but no door was opening or slamming, nothing that shouldn't be moving was moving…there wasn't anything going on inside except Endou's phone ringing on the floor.

Then suddenly, it moved, bouncing off a bit. Then again and again until it stopped ringing.

Endou was a little confused by the sight. Was the ghost poking his phone or something? But it wasn't like it was anything of interest to anyone…

He continued to watch his phone intently. He felt that there was something he had overlooked. Something so simple that he hadn't noticed before.

And then it hit him.

_"The souvenirs had been scattered all over the place and there was graffiti all over! Drawn with our own markers! I nearly screamed my head off when I saw the whole thing!"_

_"The only strange thing that happened here sounds more like the work of vandalls."_

_"…it sounds like all the ghost wants to do is play tricks. Not at all malevolent."_

_"Now these days it's only occult fanatics who come to visit…but if it hadn't been for them, this place would have been closed down…."_

_It was like something out of a movie._

"How stupid could I have been?" Endou said as everything hit him and he quickly ran into the building much to the horror of the three children and on cue, everything became chaotic again. The doors were slamming themselves again and everything was just moving around haphazardly but Endou didn't even move. He just stood and watched everything play out. For while, it became stronger and louder but slowly it began to weaken until it all came to a halt.

The three in shock inside and Endou just smiled and walked up to his phone and picked up but he didn't get up or walk away.

Instead, he stayed there and even began playing with as pressed various buttons, letting a variation of noises ranging from a car's horn to a whistle blowing to woman screaming.

"That was actually pretty good." Endou said out loud with a smile. "Did you get that idea from one of the occult fans who visited this place? I'm sure they must have talked about stuff like this a lot."

No one replied as he continued tinkering with his phone. A bell ringing, a dog barking...

"And if you'd like, I'll let you play with my phone." he said with a grin. "I'm sure you must have seen this a few times before. But I can't lend it to you if I can't see you. So can you come out?"

Endou stopped playing with his phone as he asked that and looked around and after a few moments of silence, he saw small child wearing a simple, traditional Japanese clothing come out a bit from behind a pedestal, looking at him with curious, silver eyes that he could barely see from beneath his brown hair.

Endou nearly fell over because the resemblance was so striking that it was like looking at a younger version of Tenma but he kept himself quiet. He didn't want the child running away suddenly. He stretched the phone out to the child who looked at it some confusion.

He began reaching out for it when Endou pulled it back with his usual energetic grin. The boy was surprised but he could tell that he was only teasing him. Reluctantly, he began to come out towards him until they were finally only an inch apart.

Endou smiled at him gave it to him. The child didn't do anything at first but soon, he began trying to press the buttons and giggled whenever it made a sound. And then, the child yawned a little and to Endou's surprised, he crawled unto his lap and rested his head shoulder. It was only now Endou could see how tired the child was. Manipulating everything in the room to do various things at once must have exhausted the poor thing.

Endou got up and walked back outside to his three other companions who were more than shocked and confused by what had just happened and more especially now that they see him with a small child sleeping his arms.

"And I present to you the ghost haunting this establishment." Endou said.

"This is him? He looks like Tenma when we were kids!" Aoi squealed in delight as she came up to him. She was clearly taken by how small and innocent he looked. She instantly forgot the scare he had given them a while ago as did Shinsuke.

"He's only a little taller than me!" Shinsuke pointed out.

Tsurugi was the only who wasn't as taken by the ghost's appearance, mainly because he had nearly dropped a chandelier on his head, sent a mannequin to nearly stab him, and missed his head with a bucket.

"Guys, what are you doing?" he said. "Have forgotten how he tried to kills us earlier?"

"Actually, I think we might have overreacted." Endou said. "Come on."

Hesitantly, they went inside as Endou led them to the chandelier and made a nervous chuckle. "Looking back at it, I think something like this happened before." he said. "Yes, it was falling but even if you hadn't moved, I think it would have missed you. It was behind you after all."

Tsurugi then remembered. When he turned, he just ran but looking back it now, it looked about only a meter away from him. Now that he thought about, the bucket might have been at safe distance apart from him too.

"T-then, what about the mannequin?" Tsurugi pointed out and Endou went picked up the sword in one hand, careful not to drop the ghost child and pointed the tip at Tsurugi. "Go ahead. Feel it."

Tsurugi grudgingly did and to his disbelief-

"Styrofoam!?" he yelled and the two other children shushed him as they saw ghost move from the disturbance.

"Keep your voice down!" Aoi scolded. "You might wake the poor thing up."

Tsurugi grumbled angrily.

"As you can see, I don't think he was trying to hurt us. Just scare us a little." Endou said. "I think he must have gotten the idea of doing something like this from the fans who came to visit. I'm sure they must have talked about it a lot."

"And he was the one who made a mess in the exhibit." Shinsuke said. "I guess he must have gotten bored and was just playing around using whatever he could find."

"And that's why he never did anything after that." Endou said. "We all saw the curator's reaction. I guess he must have gotten frightened by his temper and chose not to do anything until now when he heard our conversation just now, including the part of this place being torn down if nothing odd happened to attract anyone."

"So it was all just a harmless prank then." Aoi said, playing with the child's hair who was beginning to wake up.

"Yup. We were so focused on that he was a ghost, we overlooked that he was still only a child."

"You've got to be kidding…" Tsurugi grumbled, still mad at the ghost for being his target. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of! He's a ghost! Nothing can touch him! Why would he be afraid of that man?"

And with that, an ax slammed into the teak door, making everyone scream as they watched it slam into the doors again and again until they finally burst open.

The ghost cried out and quickly vanished as the four saw curator come in and seeing his red, enraged face with a broad axe in hand answered Tsurugi's remaining doubts clearly.

"Oh my! What is this mess!" he exploded. "Who did this!? You! You for must have seen the vandals! Who were they!? Where did they run off to!?"

He was even more frightening now. Endou and the children backed away in shock from the hysterical man who quickly ran to them as he continued asking them for what had happened.

"Uh, they left!" Endou said. "They escaped through the emergency-"

"Of course! The emergency door!" he yelled with his fist shaking. "I'll drag you to the police station if it's the last thing you rotten-!"

He screamed that as he ran out the door.

"Tsurugi…" Endou said. "Do you have any more questions you'd like to clarify?"

"N-no. I'm good." Tsurugi managed to say. It was then he felt a tug on his jacket and turned to see the ghost behind him, shivering scared. Feeling a bit sympathetic, he bent down and picked the ghost up let him hold unto him until he calmed down. It was then he felt like he was being watched turned to see Aoi and Shinsuke looking at him peculiarly.

"What?" he said.

"Aw~ I knew you had a soft side to you, Tsurugi." Aoi teased.

"Carry me too!" Shinsuke said and Tsurugi nearly kicked him.

"Um, excuse me." Endou said towards the ghost who turned to him in surprise. "We actually came here because we wanted to talk to you."

The ghost's eyes blinked open in confusion as looked the coach quizzically with Endou's phone still in his small hands.

"We're looking for two friends who disappeared in the forest your remains were found in." he said. "Is there anything you can tell us about it?"

The moment he mentioned the forest, ghost's eyes shot open and he quickly turned and buried himself in Tsurugi's who was alarmed by the reaction.

"H-hey!" Tsurugi yelled and then he stopped when he heard a tiny voice.

_"…s-scary…"_

"What?" Tsurugi asked and the ghost looked back up at Endou crying.

_"I…can't remember anything…but the forest is scary." _the ghost said rather fearfully. _"I've never…ever gone back…I don't like being there…"_

And without saying anything more the ghost became quiet and it made Endou frown. So even the ghost who died there didn't know anything.

The silence was broken more by ringing of Endou's phone which surprised the ghost enough that he nearly dropped it.

"Let me." Endou said, taking it away from him. Now that he thought of it, who had called him up earlier?

"Hello? Hey, Sangoku." Endou greeted before his expression turned dark again. "No, he isn't with us. We haven't seen him either. Okay. Call me back when you find him."

As Endou hung up, Aoi looked at him worriedly.

"Coach? Did something happen?" she asked and the coach simply grumbled with his head hung down.

"Kirino's gone. They can't find him and they can't reach him by phone. They don't where he is." he answered.

* * *

Kirino was thoroughly exhausted now. After searching for a long time, he had managed get himself lost. Kirino just sighed to himself, disappointed more that he was unable to find Shindou despite his best efforts to find for him.

"Great. Now I'm a failure both as his teammate and as his friend." he grumbled, sitting near a tree. What else was there to do now? As much s he wanted to, his body wouldn't let him go any further.

"I guess I'll have to rest for the night and find my way back in the morning." he said, lying down some grass to sleep and in his head, he couldn't help but wonder how things could have turned out like this for them when it had first started like any other day.

He almost fell asleep when he heard some noises from somewhere nearby. He jolted up and look around but nothing. He lied back down but there it went again; the sound of the leaves rustling. He quickly picked himself back up, grabbing his flashlight and turned it on as he went to have a look as to what was making the noise.

"Who's there? Shindou?" Kirino yelled, pushing some leaves and branches out of his way, inching closer and closer to the noise.

By the time dawn would come, Kirino himself would fall victim to the so-called ghost of the forest as all the other unlucky children before him did, including his best friend.


	7. The Attack

**Authour's Note:** Thanks again to AniSeanna who proof-read not one but two chaps at the same time.

To Kirino fans...my deepest apologies.

* * *

"Who's there? Shindou?" Kirino yelled, pushing some leaves and branches out of his way, inching closer and closer to the noise.

"That voice-! Kirino, is that you?!" a voice yelled and Kirino's heart nearly stopped beating.

"Tenma!?" Is that you?!" he yelled and he quickened his pace, practically running towards what he was sure was where he heard Tenma's voice echoing from.

"Kirino! It is you?!" he yelled and he sounded very happy and it was much clearer this time as well. He was close "I'm over here by a tree!"

"Just stay where you are! I'm coming to get you!" he yelled and slid down a shallow slope, stopping by a tree when he turned to see Tenma, standing there who was at first shocked but quickly smiled once he realised who he was and jumped to hug him in relief.

"Kirino! You don't how happy I am to see you!" Tenma cried happily and the same went for Kirino who more than gladly reciprocated the hug.

"Tenma! You're alive!" Kirino happily said.

"Huh? Well, yeah! Of course I am!" Tenma replied.

"Well, then where were you?" Kirino asked, loosening his hold on him just a bit to give him room. "And why are you still here? How did you even get here?"

"K-Kirino…" Tenma said to him. "One at time please."

"Oh, yes. Sorry about that." Kirino apologised and Tenma beamed back a smile.

"It's okay but I wish I knew the answer to those questions myself." Tenma answered with a hanging as frowned with a confused expression.

"What do you mean by that?" Kirino asked, his tone now having switched from one of such carefree to one of extreme seriousness.

"I-I don't know how I got here." Tenma answered simply. "I just woke up and I was in a cave. When I was feeling better, I tried to go down the mountain but no matter what I did or how far I would walk, I just couldn't leave."

"What do you mean you couldn't?" Kirino asked. "It's just open land."

"I know it sounds crazy but I'm telling you the truth!" Tenma insisted. "I tried to go down but I always ended back at the cave."

Kirino frowned at him. He could tell that Tenma wasn't lying to him but how could he not leave this place when he had gotten in so easily? Sure it took a few hours but what could be here that could prevent him from leaving?

"By the way, why are you here, Kirino?" Tenma asked and Kirino body turned cold as guilt came flooding back into his nerves and he started to shake.

"K-Kirino?" Tenma asked worriedly. "Are you all right?"

"Y-Yes…I'm fine." Kirino lied with a smile on his face. "I'm just a bit tired from running the entire day. Just give me a minute to rest."

"Okay." Tenma said but he still gazed towards Kirino with a worried stare. "Is the rest of the team here too?"

"No, just me." Kirino answered. "I think."

"You think?" Tenma asked quizzically. "Are you lost?"

Kirino twitched at Tenma's guess which was a clear bull's eye hit.

"Of course not. I know where I am." Kirino lied again to keep him from realising that he was right. Luckily Tenma wasn't very observant by nature and he smiled with relief.

"That's good. So we can go back once you've rested, right?" Tenma asked. "I've been stuck here the entire day so I don't even know where the sun or moon is anymore."

Kirino cursed silently as he realised that they were both lost. Of course he wouldn't know the way back! How could he?

"Uh, Tenma," Kirino said rather humbly this time. "I'm actually lost too."

"Oh." Tenma said quietly. "So what do we do?"

Kirino frowned as he began thinking of their next move. Common sense would say to rest for the night and wait until morning before they would try to find their way back but the only problem was that common sense only applied to common problems and situations and the current problem and situation was far from normal.

"Tenma, did you notice anything strange while you were here?" Kirino asked with a smile, hoping Tenma wouldn't catch on to the panic in his voice.

"Hm, well first, I could never leave no matter how much I tried and there was always food prepared when it needed to be even though no one was around." Tenma answered.

"You never saw anyone?" Kirino asked with a mix of relief, desperation, and confusion. "No one shady? No one familiar?"

Tenma shook his head with a more confused and worried expression on his face.

"No. Why? Is everything all right?" Tenma asked, now sensing that something was wrong but Kirino just sighed happily.

"Yeah. Don't worry, everything is fine." Kirino answered with a calm smile that many of his friends saw similar to Shindou's whenever he wanted to reassure a friend in trouble and that was a good thing because Tenma was in more trouble than he realised. "Come on. Let's go."

"Huh? But we don't know the way back." Tenma said. "We can't even see what's in front of us!"

"I've got a flashlight and a phone. I think that'll help light our way through for a good amount time." Kirino assured. "And after that, we've got the moonlight too if we make it out far enough. If it gets too dark or dangerous, we'll find a place rest for the night."

Tenma wasn't sure if that was a safe idea but Kirino looked sure and considering that Kirino had made it all the way here from the caravan, he must know the terrain better than he did so he must be on the right track.

"Ok." Tenma said and Kirino smiled and he got up, picking Tenma up with him as well.

"Let's go then." Kirino said and Tenma nodded, following him dutifully.

"One more thing, Kirino." Tenma said. " A while ago, you were calling Shindou but you said that you were alone. I'm really confused."

Kirino stopped walking and turned to Tenma who was still looking him back at him with a confused and concerned expression.

"Kirino, did something really happen?" Tenma asksd. "Please tell me."

"When we get down, then I'll explain everything." Kirino promised. "Just be patient until then."

He was expecting for Tenma to plead with him to tell him what was going on but strangely he said nothing but continued to follow Kirino quietly.

"Aren't you going to say something?" Kirino asked.

"No. Not really." Tenma answered. "Unless you want to talk. It's very quiet."

Kirino looked at Tenma but he didn't know how to put it. It was a mix of surprise but…proud. Yes, that's it, he felt proud. In only a span of a few months, he had matured quite a bit.

"Let's talk about soccer! Like during-" Tenma said as he continued to ramble about soccer excitedly and Kirino did what he could to hold his laughter to keep from offending his junior. He had matured but some thing's would just never change. But talking about soccer didn't sound like a bad idea. Anything to make the tension in the air go away.

It took a while but Kirino finally found the way back and just in time too because his flashlight had finally run out of juice after hours from strolling through the night. So the rest of the way was was lit up by the moon or at least that was what Kirino initially thought.

"Kirino, I can't see anything." Tenma said and Kirino grumbled angrily. Tonight of all nights, the sky had to be covered so thickly that the moon couldn't even be seen. Neither could see a thing and even when they had a phone, the light shed just wasn't enough.

"I can't find a single either." Kirino muttered dishearteningly as he realised that his initial plans had failed. There was no way they could make it through the night. Assuming it was even still night.

"Kirino, maybe we should rest and wait until morning to try to find our back." Tenma suggested.

"No. We need to keep moving." Kirino said. "Or it might find us."

"What will find us?" Tenma asked.

"Huh? Uh, _Kamaitachi's_." Kirino answered quickly, angry at himself that he accidentally slipped out information so easily like that. "It's pretty dark. Perfect night for stalking victims."

"Y-you don't mean that do you?" Tenma asked shivering scared.

"What? Of course not! They're not real!" Kirino said, surprised Tenma still believed in such things.

"Oh, yeah, I suppose you're right." Tenma chuckled a bit but he still felt a bit scared. Looking around, it was very dark. Anything could jump out from there. Just the thought of it made Tenma wonder if they were truly safe. The further two went on, the more frightening the thoughts in his imagination became.

"Eep!" Tenma yelped suddenly. Kirino nearly jumped and towards Tenma who was still shaking though he couldn't see that.

"Tenma, is something wrong?" Kirino asked and Tenma nodded his head fearfully.

"Y-Yes. I just thought I saw something." Tenma answered. "I guess I'm still worried about the _Kamaitachi_ following us."

"Tenma, those aren't real." Kirino explained with a laugh.

"I know." Tenma said with an embarrassed face. "How long before we get back?"

"I'm not sure." Kirino said, looking around to see nothing but the pitch black shadows of the forest. "We should just go on. I'm sure we're almost there."

"If you say so." Tenma said but part of him still felt unsure. Kirino continued walking but it took him a while to notice the sudden silence in the air.

"Tenma, there's really nothing for you to be worried about. There're no monsters here." Kirino said, looking back but no one answered and as he saw nothing but endless darkness.

"Tenma?" Kirino uttered in shock and then, something hit him. He didn't even scream as it happened so suddenly but he could hear his skull cracking from the blow.

He staggered as he felt something warm dripping through his face when he was hit a second time in the head and he quickly fell and screamed as he was continued to be struck over and over again with something hard and blunt but it definitely didn't feel like a bat or a stick. It felt harder. Another hit smashed his cheek bones and he found himself rolling down the slope, coughing a handful of blood out.

Kirino was now completely disorientated from the multiple blows. He could feel his blood draining from his wounds into the ground and his rationality slipping. He desperately tried to push himself up but something hit him again but this time, it didn't feel like the same thing his attacker used to hit him a while ago.

Kirino rolled over, lying on his side in a daze, wondering what was happening. He could hear someone walking towards him and pushed him a bit to face up but he couldn't see anything except blurry spots of black and white. It was then he felt something heavy sit on top of his chest, knocking some wind out of him with a weak gasp. Kirino was too weak to move. He could only wonder what was happening when something tightened around his neck quickly, cutting off Kirino's lungs of precious oxygen as the boy began to gasp desperately.

"…knh!…hhkm…!" Kirino gurgled. He could taste his own blood filling his mouth as he desperately scratched his throat and his attacker's hands in an attempt to get whatever it was that was suffocating him off but whatever was around his neck was too thin and couldn't even feel it and he was sure that he had already dug his nails into his skin trying to get it off.

"…kr….hurk…ng…" Kirino wheezed. He was going to pass out. He could feel his consciousness slipping away. He thrashed his arms around quickly, the necrophobia now gripping him. The fear of death slowly began to get the better of him when his hand brushed up against something big, hard, and rocky.

He grabbed it and with whatever remaining strength he had left, he grabbed his attacker's arm and smashed the rock into his arm as deep as he could and he heard a scream echo through the forest.

He coughed and gasped as he finally could breath again and scrambled away as fast as he could.

"T-Tenma…!" he coughed as loud as his could but the silence was an agonising answer as he realised that Tenma must have been attacked as well by whatever got him. He nearly broke down when he felt a vicious slam hit his leg, snapping the bone.

"Aaaahhhrrhh!" Kirino screamed as he tumbled back down into the dirt, grabbing his leg to feel a gaping hole as the pain began to fill in with all his blood pouring out of his leg like a fountain. A few rustles nearby and a realisation, a horrible realisation finally sunk into his mind; he was going to die.

The evil figure stepped out, desperately looking for his lost victim.

**"Where are you, child?"**

"Eeeyaahh!" a shriek erupted through the forest, startling the monster. He took a few steps into its direction when he yelped as his foot slipped off a ledge. He jumped back and quickly opened his torch and pointed it over to reveal a cliff's edge.

The monster huffed at the near mis. As he loomed over the ledge, it was a bit hard to see with the morning fog now setting in but he could tell that it was quite high. He took a coin out from his pocket and tossed it off and he never heard it strike the ground until after the two seconds counted from his breath.

_"…dead. He wouldn't have survived the fall."_ the monster figured with a wry smile before he turned to leave. He continued walking up until he came across a dead tree and he tore off the fake blanket of dead branches and leaves strung together and there in a shallow hole was the sleeping child Kirino had called out earlier and he couldn't help but smile a sadistic grin.

* * *

It was now early morning. An hour before five to be precise. The sun wasn't up and shinning just yet but the the faintly starry sky was still just as a beautiful site but somehow, it seemed to be darker than it was supposed to be, as did everything around to the Raimon Eleven who were up early, busy packing up everything they had and making last minute rounds to see if everything and everyone was still there, each member still dealing with their own grievances deep inside.

Endou had it far worse. Not only did he have to inform his closest friend that her cousin was gone but he now had the gruelling responsibility of informing two more families of the same news who reacted the same way as any family would have at that time, they blamed him for what had happened to them and Endou did nothing to retaliate back as he felt the same way, wishing he had forced them all to go home while most of them were all still there. And behind the bus was Tsurugi, sitting by himself or at least that was what it seemed.

Only he, Aoi, Shinsuke, and Endou could see the young boy looking at the caravan with gleaming curiosity in his eye but he also looked over worriedly towards Tsurugi who hasn't said anything since that morning.

_"Sword?"_ the ghost child asked but the boy just grumbled angrily, not even looking at him.

"It's _Tsurugi_." Tsurugi corrected with a huff. "That's '_Sword_' and '_Castle_' together."

_"Er, yes, Tsurugi."_ the ghost said. _"I am…confused. Why are you all here when your friend or friends are in trouble?"_

"Because so far every time we've tried, things would go horribly wrong." Tsurugi answered. "Why do think two others are gone when initially only one of us vanished?"

_"…I…don't understand."_ the ghost said, making the older boy…in terms of appearance, grunt with annoyance.

"Only one disappeared. The other two tried to look for him but disappeared too." he simplified and the ghost nodded.

_"But then why are you not out looking for them?" _the ghost asked.

"Didn't I already answer you? It's only going to worse." Tsurugi repeated.

_"But what if-"_

"Shut up, will you!?" he finally yelled and the ghost let out a yelp and vanished in fright. Tsurugi grumbled, sitting down angrily before he noticed the strange looks some of his confused teammates were giving him. He simply turned and walked away but Aoi and Shinsuke were the only ones who weren't so confused by his behaviour but they did frown simultaneously as a proper reaction. The two ran up quickly to where Tsurugi was and began looking around for the ghost child most likely hiding inside a nearby object somewhere around.

"Hey, are you here?" Shinsuke whispered.

"It's okay. we aren't like Tsurugi. We won't yell at you." Aoi comforted and the small ghost peeked out from the tire wheel shaking a little.

"Here, a phone." Shinsuke said and the ghost happily jumped in, making it fold to close and open over again.

"Hehe, he it's so cute how he thinks that what it's supposed to do." Aoi said.

"We should go and talk to Tsurugi! He shouldn't yell at…" Shinsuke said before pausing. "Huh, we never really got your name."

"We didn't even have time to look around at the exhibit so we don't really know much about you." Aoi remembered.

_"It's fine. I have stayed at the museum place for a few months and I do not think I have ever heard my name being said." _the ghost said. _"I do not think it is known."_

The two gave the ghost an apologetic look before going in search for Tsurugi who they finally found sitting near the foot of the town's entrance.

"Tsurugi." Aoi said seriously. "You should talk with him and apologise."

The striker didn't even look at her. The two looked at each other with a grumble and Shinsuke ran and placed his phone next to him and two walked away. Tsurugi just wished that they wouldn't butt into his business so much. He looked over to the phone and he raised an eye at it.

"Are you there?" he said but the phone didn't even let out a beep like the ghost would usually do as he found the phone so interesting as a toy. Now Tsurugi wasn't sure if the spirit was even still there from how quiet it was. He sighed a little and looked over at the stagnant phone.

"I take back what I said earlier." Tsurugi finally said. "You can talk or do whatever it is you do to communicate or make noise or whatever."

And in no time flat, the phone beeped, barked, whistled… It was amazing how much ring tones could be downloaded into a phone nowadays. Tsurugi picked the phone up but did nothing to make it stop doing from doing what it was being controlled to do.

"Hm?" Tsurugi muttered, looking to the forest, sure he had heard something. "Hey, kid, did you hear that?"

"….r.i.." a weak voice called but it was so faint that he wasn't sure if it was real or just him.

"Hello?" Tsurugi asked but he didn't dare step a foot inside the forest.

"Tsurugi! I'm over here!" a desperate voice yelled and it almost sounded like the person was crying. "It's Kirino! Help me! Please help me!"

Tsurugi froze at the mention of 'Kirino' and he dropped the phone and ran in and what he saw was something that made everything single, bit of hell he suffered over and over since he joined Fifth Sector look like nothing. In front of him was Kirino, leaning on tree for support with bruises and blood covering nearly every part of his body as more flooded down from his head and mouth unto his torn clothes already stained with plenty of it and more hiding under the dirt mud.

"Tsurugi…is that you?" Kirino mumbled, barely clinging on. "You…you have to…"

Kirino finally collapsed, no longer having any strength left to stand as Tsurugi managed to grab him but it was hard to stand as he could feel his clothes being stained as well by some of the red blood which no one in their absolute mind could stay calm from!

_"Sword…"_ the ghost whispered hesitantly from just outside the forest. _"Uh,I cannot go in but shall I go fetch Aoi-"_

"Yes! Yes, go fetch them!" Tsurugi yelled and the spirit quietly hurried away as fast he could until he finally saw the man with the orange _hachimaki_.

_"Mister!"_ the ghost said, tugging his jacket but Endou had trouble hearing as the stress of the recent events began to sink in but somehow he managed to smiled as brightly as he could to the ghost.

"Hey. Did anything interesting happen?" Endou asked.

_"Yes." _the ghost answered. _"Sword found someone…Fog I think. He is gravely wounded and needs help."_

"What?" Endou asked in confusion as he tried to make out what the child was telling him. "Sword? Fog? _Ken and Kiri…_"

"Wait, is it Kirino? Did Tsurugi find Kirino?!" Endou asked in a louder tone that Sangoku, who was just nearby caught.

_"Oh, yes! That is it! It is Kirino!"_ the ghost answered.

"Take me to them now!" Endou yelled and the ghost guided him swiftly to the two. Meanwhile, in the forest's outskirts,Tsurugi did his best to keep Kirino awake.

"Come on, stay awake." Tsurugi said as Kirino began to slipping away.

"I managed…to get aw…away…." Kirino gasped desperately, the horrific events still playing vividly in his eyes. He had to tell Tsurugi everything now before it was too late. He could feel the blood in his mouth but he pushed himself to tell him as much as he could as best he could.

"Kirino, don't talk. You have to reserve your strength." Tsurugi said with fear in his tone which normally would be pointed out by his teammates except the only around was in a far too degraded state of mind.

"I…I jumped off a…a cliff…" Kirino continued weakly. "I landed…on bushes…"

"He? Who's he?" Tsurugi asked quickly but Kirino paid no heed. Time was slowly running out for him. He could feel the scythe coming anytime now.

"I used a his…hissatsu…so…he wouldn't notice…" Kirino said. "It worked…he didn't see…I lived…"

"Who's he Kirino?" Tsurugi asked but part him wasn't sure if they should continue as he could see that each breath was taking its own toll on him.

"And…and I finally managed…to get back…" Kirino continued far more weakly. "But he…he took…"

Tsurugi nerves shot up as soon he heard the last part and he did everything he could to calm himself to not fly off the handle.

"He…took Tenma…" Kirino finally managed to say.

"W-What!?" Tsurugi yelled.

"Saw him…" Kirino said. "Talked…with him..whole night….in the forest…."

"In the-Kirino!? Where is he now?! Who took him?!" Tsurugi yelled but Kirino had finally reached the limit of his last remaining strength only fuelled by sheer willpower.

"Kirino?! Kirino!" Tsurugi yelled, drowning the sound of his coach calling him out.

* * *

"…mng…" Tenma muttered weakly and it was all he could say. His body felt like a rock. He could't move and his mind was clouded so thickly nothing was coming to mind.

"Where am I?" Tenma wondered. He looked around and the first thing he noticed was the horrible scent stinging his nose. It was like smelling dead animal mixed with garbage. It was nasty and it looked like the source of the smell was the room itself. It was dark and musty, the only light in the room being a dangling, feeble lightbulb that wasn't even bright enough to properly read a book and it was flickering too but it was enough to let Tenma see the moulds growing on the rotting wooden walls around him.

Tenma slowly pushed himself up and he was surprised to feel something heavy around his neck. He held it firmly and it felt like iron. When he took a look, his eyes shot open. Every sense of lethargy in his body vanished as saw a metal shackle around his neck, attached to a chain leading down to where it was fastened to the wall.

Tenma nearly screamed when hands from behind grabbed him.

* * *

_Kamaitachi_- A group of monsters that reside in the Koshin'etsu region. They resemble weasels and attack humans in groups of threes.

_Hachimaki_- A styled headband or bandana that's usually white or red. Symbolizes perseverance.

_Sword & Castle together, Fog, ken and kiri_- Tsurugi's surname makes use of the Japanese characters for sword and castle however because the ghost is having trouble adjusting to the language(either because it's different or he forgot it after his death) he only pronounces the first character, 'ken' which means sword. This is the same for Kirino's surname which uses the character for fog, 'kiri'.


	8. The Truth

**Author's Note: **Thanks to AniSeanna for proof-reading this.

* * *

"Mffm! Hppfm!" Tenma screamed in muffled sounds as from behind the arms around him. He elbowed hard the person behind him but even then, he didn't let go but he could tell that he managed to do some damage as he heard a small cry of pain and it sounded familiar to his surprise.

"Tenma, stop! Just calm down. It's me, Shindou." he said with a low voice, wrapping his around Tenma and hold him to make sure he would calm down and as shocked as he was, Tenma managed to realise what was happening and hugged Shindou back.

"It is you!" Tenma said happily.

"Shush! Not so loud!" Shindou snapped quickly and Tenma winced back but nodded.

"Where are we?" he asked. Shindou frowned and looked down at his shackles.

"Sorry, I don't know where we are." he answered and it was devastating for him to hear that.

Tenma slunk back to take in everything that was happening, not sure of what to make of the situation. Just earlier, he was walking and talking happily with Kirino and now he wakes up and finds himself in some dark room with a grotesque, rusted chain around his neck and it scared him because whoever had taken him bound him like an animal and locked him in a room that smelled like death from the rotting surroundings. What did that all that say about what might happen to them when their kidnapper or kidnappers would return? It was like a repeat of the events that led to the match at God Eden Island but this time, he could tell the circumstances were much worse and something terrible was going to happen if they didn't find a way to escape soon.

It was as he was thinking that when Shindou pulled out a hairpin from his pocket and began to pick the hole in the shackle.

"Don't worry, just stay still and be quiet." Shindou said. "I'll get you out of this thing and then we're going to find a way back home to everyone."

Tenma was surprised at how composed Shindou was despite the obvious gravity of their situation but he sighed happily in relief once he felt the impact of Shindou's encouraging words. With his spirits lifted, he smiled happily as he usually did, feeling a little better but at least very reassured that they would be fine, especially that Shindou was with him now.

"So why are you here, Shindou?" Tenma asked, wondering out loud.

"What did I just tell you, Tenma? Be quiet or do you want us to get caught?" Shindou scolded with a snap. "Just whisper or he might hear us!"

His voice wasn't even raised that high, just in his usual tone. It took Tenma by surprise but looking at their situation, he could understand why Shindou was a little bit edgy. 'He' could come in at any moment if something was up.

"Okay, sorry." he apologised meekly and kept silent to let Shindou focus on the lock. Tenma made good use of this time to properly survey the empty room. There wasn't much to tell. The floorboards were covered in molds and falling apart which led into another, smaller room which had no light source of any kind but he could still see a rusted, battered up tin bucket, much like the frames of the bed he was sitting. He felt the old mattress and his hand practically turned black from all the dust it accumulated. It was even torn up a bit.

He looked the other way and he could see a lot of insects crawling around. He traced their movements carefully and saw them scurrying in and out from the huge wooden door. It was now he noticed how dilapidated it was and yet, its hinges looked brand new. Not even a sign of rust. It was very odd but with the door weak from the rotting, maybe they could break it down.

"There!" he said happily and carefully put the shackle under the bed, out of site, though the chains it was attached to still remained visible and it was very unsettling to look at.

"Yes!" Tenma rejoiced jumping up from the bed but in a small, whispering tone, fearing Shindou would snap at him again. "Let's go while we can, Shindou!"

"Don't be so rash, Tenma!" Shindou said sternly, grabbing his arm with a dark face which made Tenma flinch.

"N-no. I'm not being rash." Tenma explained, pointing to the huge door. "Look how decayed it is. If we ram it-"

"No, I already tried that." Shindou said, looking away. "It won't work."

"We can try again!" Tenma said. "You must have been alone then, right? But if we do it together, then it will definitely come down!"

"And what if he's there?" Shindou asked tightening his grip on Tenma so much it began to hurt.

"Oh, um… Maybe he'll be asleep?" Tenma answered, hoping to ease Shindou with his light statement but instead, Shindou's whole demeanour changed as he snapped from his calm self and angrily grabbed Tenma's collar and, forcibly pulling him closer to eye level for Tenma to see the pure malice accumulated in his eyes.

"S-Shindou?" Tenma gasped shaking.

"Is this a joke to you?!" Shindou yelled viciously at him, shaking him a bit and making him unsteady on feet. "We aren't doing that so don't say anything more about it, is that clear?!"

"I-y-yes!" Tenma cried and Shindou quickly realised what he had done and slowly set him down and held him, trying to comfort him as best he could.

"I…I'm sorry." Shindou apologised and Tenma nodded with some hesitance.

"I-It's okay but are you all right? You've never snapped like that before." Tenma asked and Shindou smiled but it wasn't like how he usually would.

"I'm…. Of course. I'm fine." Shindou said but he was still as shaky as before.

Tenma sat back down on the bed and looked around the dark room again. It felt damp and cold but now he could feel something else. Whatever it was, it must have been the one responsible for the change in Shindou.

He shook a little and it didn't go unnoticed by his older friend. Shindou unzipped his jersey and wrapped him with his own jacket much to Tenma's confusion.

"It's okay. I have my own jacket." Tenma said.

"No, it's fine." Shindou said. "Just rest for the time being."

"All right, but I've been wondering," Tenma said. "Who is this 'he' you keep talking about? And where did you get that hairpin? It looks like something that would belong to a girl."

Shindou's expression snapped again and this time it resembled like something that of monster's. "Tenma, I know you're confused about what's happening but I need you to trust me on this." Shindou answered.

"I do trust you." Tenma said. "I just-"

"Then please don't ask any more." Shindou said, leaning down to Tenma's eye level to let him know he was serious. "And after we escape, I need you promise me that you will never ask about this or look into it. Ever."

"Huh? Why?" Tenma asked in confusion but Shindou didn't pay much attention.

"It's a 'yes' or 'no' question. Do you promise or not?" Shindou asked again and Tenma frowned and shook his head.

"Then no! There's something really weird going on and I can't just keep staying in the dark." Tenma answered as he got up from the bed. "Can't you just tell me what's happening? Or at least why you're acting so…not yourself."

"No! Absolutely not!" Shindou told him angrily, his savage temper now resurfacing and Tenma began to back away.

"Shindou, please-"

**"We aren't discussing this! It's either you say yes or nothing at all!"** Shindou yelled furiously, grabbing his junior by the neck tightly, forcing a gasp from Tenma as he stared back at someone he could no longer recognize, stunned at what he was doing to him. Shindou himself was shocked as he realized what he had done but instead of letting go, he tightened his trembling hands and locked into Tenma's eyes with a cold leer.

"Answer. Now." he said and the frightened child nodded and Shindou finally let him go. Tenma was still shaking from the brief rough handling and he collapsed back on the bed.

"I-I think I'm going to go rest for while." Tenma said, holding himself as tried to process that he had just been strangled Shindou. Of all people, him. Shindou nodded with even looking.

"That's a good idea." Shindou replied in an apologetic tone. "Afterwards, let's discuss a way to get out of here before he returns."

Tenma didn't reply and just curled up at the edge of the bed as far from him as he could, still wondering to himself why Shindou was like this.

"What happened while I was away?" Tenma mumbled to himself, suddenly feeling very lonely.

* * *

In their short time in this world, each and every one of them had seen and experienced many different things. Endou himself had seen and experienced plenty, among the most notable of them being battling angels and demons and encountering time travelling soldiers and his great-grandson. For most of the children, no doubt it would their kidnapping by Fifth Sector when they were brought to God Eden island and for Tsurugi, it was much more than that including the feeling of being responsible of destroying a possible, fruitful future of someone he held dear but never once did any of those experiences ever became so dangerous that there was need for blood to be shed. And now here they were in the hospital room with their oldest member breathing through a _laryngeal mask_, black, blue, and swollen red from his injuries, especially to head which took the worst of the damages, so much that if you were to take off his bandages, you could see his skull from the gaping tear on his forehead. It was the most horrible thing they had seen.

All three managers were outside, unable to stomach the gore of it all. The rest of the male members were inside but the feeling was very much mutual. Nearly all of them sat there in the room, just there, not uttering a word. The only two other than the girls who weren't in the room with them were Endou and Tsurugi. Endou had gone off to contact Kirino's family who no doubt would want his head once they were finished talking and he couldn't even imagine what to tell Shindou's parents and Aki as well, especially now that they know that whoever the savage who nearly beat Kirino to death now had Tenma. It was an agonizing thought, one that Tsurugi expressed openly in the lavatory cubicle.

"Auugh!"

The ghost stared worriedly at his friend as he threw up all his insides into the ceramic bowl.

_"S-Sword…?"_ the spirit asked. "_Are you okay? Should I-_"_  
_

"SHUT UP! Just shut up for once you stupid, moronic, spoiled brat!" he yelled to the ghost and the spirit flinched and screamed out and began to cry hard and it registered to Tsurugi and looked back to see the ghost in shock by his reaction. He was a spirit but somehow tears flowed down the child's face. It didn't make any sense for a ghost to have tears but was it even supposed to make sense? All that mattered was that there a child crying, absolutely distressed and confused.

Tsurugi just did what he could to breath to regain himself. Once he managed to get himself together, he hobbled over to the ghost though his initial reaction was to be expected. The ghost burst into more tears and backed away defensively.

_"N-No! It's not… It isn't, it's not my fault! Go away!"_ he yelled before suddenly going to the doors behind him and began to create the same chaos he made back at the museum.

"Kid! KID!" Tsurugi yelled in hopes to calm him down.

"Get a grip over yourself! Someone's going to come over from to see what's happening!" he yelled but the panicking ghost didn't even pause to give sign he was listening. Tsurugi thought quickly and yelled again, "And by someone I mean the curator!"

The doors slammed shut in unison just like that and nothing more. Tsurugi was sure that would work because he was just as afraid of the man himself. The ax still bothered him a lot but luckily, no one came. It was a small town so maybe there just wasn't a lot of patients or doctors around.

He collapsed down on his leg. So much has happened and that his own body hasn't been able to cope with it all, especially from…

Tsurugi shook his head. He didn't want to throw up again. A small creak from the cubicle door and Tsurugi looked to see the ghost peeking out and shaking visibly from everything.

"_…I-_" the ghost said with a small voice. "_I…I'm so sorry! …I just…it wasn't my…I'm sorry, Sword._"

Tsurugi looked at him. Even after everything, he still couldn't get his name right.

"It's fine. Don't apologize." Tsurugi said. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. Sorry."

Tsurugi managed get back on his legs albeit shaky and went to the door.

"_Sword?! Where are you going?!_ _I'm so sorry about what I did! Please don't leave me alone!_" The child wept running over to Tsurugi.

"Kid, kid! It's fine!" Tsurugi told him to calm him down. "It's not because of you. It was my fault anyway."

"_Then don't go! I don't like being alone!"_ the ghost said and Tsurugi frowned and picked him up.

"I'm going to go to the forest to find them." Tsurugi said. "You hate it, right? Then stay here and play with Shinsuke and Aoi."

"_…no! Can I come with you?_" the ghost said.

"Wha-I thought you hated that place?" Tsurugi said and the ghost suddenly hugged him again and pressed himself closer into Tsurugi shoulder. The older boy was surprised of course but then again, if he were to put himself in the boy's shoes, it wasn't very a shocker either.

"_And anyway…I remember the forest a bit. I can just go up with you during the first few hours…_" the ghost said. "_Just don't leave me…"_

Tsurugi didn't answer to the ghost's pleas. He just held him, wondering if he should let him get involved when he had a pretty good idea of what he was going to find assuming he wasn't found first.

* * *

A twist on the rusty door and the huge door opened dryly with a creak and a robust figure entered carrying a dead duck on his back while hoisting a looming_Franchi I-12_ over his left shoulder. On the same side, bandages wrapped around his forearm.

He turned to his room literally next to the door and opened his closet lined with various hunting rifles and shotguns for hunting fresh prey.

He emptied the gun and returned it to its rightful place while placing the cartridges into a secure box. Only his fully loaded semi-automatic remained in his holster.

He locked the cabinet before locking the entire room itself. The last thing he wanted was for the children's wandering hands to get to his personal armory.

He headed to the down the hall and into the kitchen and placed dead fowl lazily on the counter and left, moving towards a molded door standing guard with a new, pristine lock to stand out. He unlocked it and pushed the huge plank with a hand when a yell echoed the rundown place.

"**Now!**"

"**Spiral Draw!**"

The next thing he knew, he found himself slamming against the ceiling with a scream from the pain and inside the room watching was the wavy-haired brunette who couldn't be more happier for his junior's excellent work but he knew that they were still far from safe.

Tenma stopped his pace on a dusty rug but not on his own accord. He screamed as he fell over, landing on rug and sending thousands of dust bunnies flying out.

"Ugh…What was that?" Tenma coughed, swearing that he had just stepped on something very hard. He turned and gasped as his senior ran towards him, past the injured man who was still reeling from the shock he had given him and pulled him up into the kitchen.

"Come on!" Shindou yelled at the confused junior.

"But-!" Tenma yelled. Behind them, the figured growled angrily and quickly got up and chased for them into the room and was startled once again when a shining temple rose before him. He winced back, just about to draw his pistol when two powerful blows behind his head knocked him out cold.

Near the entrance of the kitchen, Tenma was shocked to see Shindou gasping breathlessly, his hands shaking with an iron skillet in his grip. He had seen this type of thing many times in cartoons. It was very funny but now in real life, it was horrifying as he could see drops of blood drip down from the pan and the horror furthered when he saw Shindou raise it again, preparing to beat the man further until he gave a decisive blow.

"Shindou! Don't!" Tenma yelled, running at him and knocking him down along with his peculiar weapon which now lied just a few feet away from them.

"Tenma?! What are you doing?!" Shindou yelled furiously.

"I should be asking you that!" Tenma yelled back. "He's already down! Why go further?!"

"Just get out of the way! You don't even know what's happening!" Shindou snapped as he shoved Tenma away but he pushed himself and grabbed Shindou and held him down. "Tenma!"

"You're right! I don't know what's going on!" Tenma said. "But I can't let you do it! I won't let you! It's wrong!"

"If you knew who he was and what he did then you'd know that we've already passed the morale barrier!" he yelled as a response. "Now let go and just let me-"

"No! And what's this 'we'?! You passed it! Not me! I mean, killing him?!" Tenma yelled. "I don't know what he did but if you kill him you'll be a murderer and then what?! What about me?! The team?! Kirino?!"

Shindou stopped when he mentioned Kirino and collapsed on his leg, shaking with all his energy drained away just like that.

_That reminds me…I forgot to tell you. While I managed to subdue the boy…he wasn't alone. The other one he was with gave me a hard time but I managed to recognise him by his voice. He was the one I saw with you were with earlier that afternoon. You should have heard him scream when that bullet hit him…._

"Shindou…?" Tenma asked worriedly.

"Kiri…." Shindou whispered but he shook his head and stood back up. "Come on. Help me locked this thing up."

Tenma got up but he was shocked to hear how Shindou addressed him, like he didn't even see him as a human being. Tenma took his legs and Shindou grabbed his head and the two threw the man inside the pantry. After Shindou helped himself to whatever food and water he could get, he took the man's keys dangling on his holster with his gun and Tenma locked the door. Shindou, however, remained paranoid and dragged whatever furniture he could find and mounted them against the door.

"Is that all really necessary?" a weary Tenma asked and Shindou nodded his head.

"You saw the gun, didn't you?" he asked before turning away. He went out the kitchen and Tenma followed behind, noticing the dead duck on the counter again and hesitantly took it before continuing behind Shindou into another room near the entrance, filled with better accommodations than their room with a covered bed with a clean, proper mattress, soft pillows and a warm blanket and it led to a decent the bathroom which had a working toilet and shower room instead of just a bucket unlike theirs.

"Shindou?" Tenma asked and he saw him search the room. He heard him grumbled after he pulled out the last of the drawers before going to the other side of the room. He then opened the gun-filled closet which sent wave of worried speculations through Tenma's mind as he saw Shindou rummage the place through in and out. "What are you looking for? Can I help?"

"No." Shindou answered sternly. "Just stay there…"

Shindou pulled out a map, a compass, and then finally a bag and he sighed with some relief and went over to a corner behind the bed but he stopped to look at Tenma with a frown. "Turn away."

"Huh?" Tenma asked curiously.

"Just…. Please just do what I tell you to do." he said almost begging him and Tenma nodded fearfully and walked out. He could hear something creaking inside the room and after a while Shindou came out.

"What did you do?" Tenma asked.

"Just getting some stuff." Shindou said and he pulled out the compass and map. "This is looks like a map of the forest and look over here, this is the fastest route out. We can get back to town in a few hours."

"Wow." Tenma said, staring at the map. It was all written by hand so the man must have navigated throughout nearly the entire forest and it was huge looking at it now.

"Tenma, what is that?'" Shindou asked with disgusted tone, pointing at the dead duck in his hands.

"Well, since you were getting food so I decided to take it with me." Tenma said. Shindou looked at it for a few minutes with a frown.

"Leave it." he said. "If it's a few hours, we won't really need it."

Tenma sighed and left it on the drawer. Shindou then took his hands and the two left.

"And, Shindou," Tenma said. "I may not know what he did but I do know who he is."

Shindou's eyes shot up and he turned quickly towards his junior, nearly speechless. "Y-You know him?!" he screamed.

"Uh, yeah." Tenma answered in surprised. "Well, I don't know him per say but I did see him when we were looking for Kariya when we first stopped here."

And time froze right there and then for Shindou.

"W…what?" Shindou said weakly as the shock of this words hit every part of his nerves at once. "When you were… He-Was he the old man who told Kariya the story?! The one about the Prince and the Guard?!"

"Story?" Tenma asked. "I'm not sure but I think so. I was sick then so my memory from that point is really fuzzy but yeah, I think that's him. Kariya was saying something about a folklore on our way back. Is that the one?"

Shindou was shaking as he remembered every word Tsurugi and Kariya told him and everything the four of them with Kirino talked about.

**_"Hey, why does that old guy have so many of these newspaper articles anyway?" Kirino asked…_**

**_"Yeah, I thought that too." Tsurugi answered._**

Shindou's brain began to process everything more slowly and it became clearer and clearer.

**_"On May 3, a young boy, Shi Hajime went missing near that forest. Three days later, some campers discovered his corpse was floating down the river. He had brown hair and silver eyes._**

**_It has been two months since that fateful day and just yesterday, the so called 'Wandering Knight' as the locals it, has claimed a fourth victim. A young daughter of a local couple disappeared and then three days later her corpse was found floating down river. She also had brown hair and silver eyes…"_**

Shindou's legs began to quiver. If his memory was correct, the boy was the fourth victim of the serial killings. Before that…the first three victims were a family. They were out camping for several days…and they were attacked…

The father, in his twenties, survived but his wife and child died…the wife first. Then the young girl…

If that man were still alive now…he would be sixty. Tsurugi and Kariya said he looked sixty...

**"_It's the ghost! He's the one behind the killings! The wretched monster!_**

"No… The ghost! The story! It was…!" Shindou said as he body shook.

**_Because they look like that boy doesn't mean everyone looking like him is him! Why even go as far as to kill them?_**

"It was all lie! A trick to fool the locals! He…! It was…!"

**_I don't care! Because of him..._**

"It was him! He killed his wife and then his own daughter! He killed that boy! He killed them all!" Shindou yelled, the blood-curdling truth finally dawning on him as he finally remembered where he had seen the hairpin in his pocket before as the pictures of the first two victims flashed in mind, the same hairpin, appearing neat and new behind the girl head, holding up her ponytail hair.

"Shindou? What's wrong?! What are you talking about?!" Tenma asked anxiously as he held Shindou who was shaking uncontrollably as the old man's smile began to emerge from his mind.

**_…my little angel. My dear sweet angel…"_**

* * *

___laryngeal mask_- tube inserted through the oesophagus to help breathing

_Franchi I-12_- A shotgun used for duck hunting.


	9. The Album

**Author's Note and** **Warning**: Some scenes from this point on will be more graphic than before. It's not too graphic but a little more than the previous chapters.

Also, thanks to AniSeanna for writing a part of this.

* * *

_"It was him! He killed his wife and then his own daughter! He killed that boy! He killed them all!" _

It was a blunt and short statement by one of his closest friends but it was more than enough to give him an idea of what was happening but it was just too hard to believe for the sheltered, innocent mind of Tenma.

Shindou tried to swallow the lump in his throat away without success. His own words still floated through his head, goading him at how slow he was to realising the truth of everything as they kept on repeating themselves. But he had to get it together for the sake of both of them.

Tenma still supported him and his eyes changed from fear to concerned when Shindou tried to stand again in spite of still shaking uncontrollably but he managed to get up without falling down.

"We have to go." Shindou spoke to his junior. He placed the bag on his back and started to walk out from the porch with the map and compass in his hands. Tenma quickly got up and followed his senior outside.

The rays of the afternoon sun greeted them through foliage of the trees. It all seemed so calm to Tenma with the wind brushing his face gently like nothing bad had happened today at all. He turned to see the small house where they were held captive. You could see how decayed it was from neglect, untrimmed plants entwining in the invaded the joints between the bricks which were at the point of falling apart yet still holding together against all odds. The house was almost absorbed by the surroundings.

"Come on, Tenma! We need to keep the pace up!" Shindou screamed to him from some dozens meters away.

"Yeah, coming!" He yelled back and ran to his senior. When he almost reached him Shindou started walking towards him sternly. "We don't have all the time of the world realize that will you." Shindou said staring forward to the path pointed out on the map. Tenma was taken aback by the way Shindou told him that his voice full of anger and drenched with poison.

"What could have awaken this side of Shindou?" Tenma wondered but he didn't dare to ask so he followed in silence. With Shindou leading the way, the two followed down the path traced on the map along with every wind of the graphite marked drawn.

"Wait." Shindou said upon seeing a ledge as they headed down. It wasn't very steep but Shindou decided they go one at time anyway, him first on his own insistence and when Tenma tried go down, Shindou helped him, again, on his insistence.

"There you go." Shindou said as he guided Tenma by hand to his ground level. Although he knew Tenma didn't really need it, he just wanted to be sure. The man after them was something he had never encountered before in his life and something he was sure shouldn't even be allowed to exist. If he found them, they wouldn't stand a chance.

The two went on down on their way. Bored, Tenma began to hum to keep their spirits up and Shindou smiled contently but he continued to survey the area vigilantly, hoping the man wasn't following behind with one of his hunting rifles. He had locked it all up and threw all the boxes of ammunition he could find into the river a long time ago but he must have more up his sleeve. The sight of animal traps stringed up in his closet were the ones that made him the most uneasy.

"Hold up, Tenma." Shindou said, stopping Tenma again.

"What is it this time?" Tenma asked but Shindou didn't answer him, looking at a bundle of leaves a few feet away. He took a large stone near his foot and threw it across and in one second, out sprung something as it ploughed into the ground in one swift slash. It sprung back to its original position, dangling a bit for them to see a tree; a thin, flexible tree with sharp barbs of double-edged blades tied at its center to form a comblike, springing guillotine. If they had gone through it…

Tenma gulped at the thought. Shindou reached to hold Tenma's arm before continuing onward carefully, vigilantly watching for anymore traps. Shindou knew that there would definitely be more around as they would travel deeper into hell created by their captor. With each step they took, Shindou could see the afternoon sky becoming darker.

* * *

Tsurugi was tired. He had walked halfway through the forest with the ghost kid for about two hours now. He felt his tired, aching body begging to stop and rest for at least a minute but he couldn't let himself sit down yet. But it was hard with his stomach hurting so much as did his throat and he would feel a bit dizzy every now and then. It wasn't any surprise since he had thrown up everything and then some earlier in the hospital.

"_Sword, sword look we're at the river!"_ the kid said happily _"Now you can refresh yourself again."_

"I can see that." Tsurugi said.

The kid nodded and Tsurugi slid down the river bank and looked in the water streaming and glowing in the sun like a mirror. If it hadn't been for the situation he's in he could maybe enjoy this sight. He splashed some water in his face and rubbed the tiredness out of his eyes.

**_Three days later, the corpse was discovered floating down the river._**

He shook that thought out of his mind and the ghost kid kept staring at the older child looking so vulnerable in that squatted down position, staring at the water. He almost wanted to push him in as surprise. That was when he felt a presence near them, maybe hundred feet above them. _"Oh, look! It's Circle!"_ he said "Circle_ is here too to help us!_"

Tsurugi shot his eyes open at those word 'circle'...or '_e__n_'. "Where is he, where is Coach?" he asked panicking but with a low tone. If he was found now he would be in too much trouble, the events of yesterday still flashing through his mind with his coach stomping and lowly cursing around in circles.

"_Right up above__ us." _the child answered, slightly scared by the panicking voice. "Come on, we have to go." Tsurugi said. Keeping the pace up again. finding their way back through the thick bushes within this cursed forest.

The child walked beside him, holding onto Tsurugi's shirt to not fall behind. The aura from Endou faded away as time went by. The sun would be setting soon in but they didn't plan on returning back to the caravan. The child looks at the surroundings.

"Do you feel anything yet?" Tsurugi asked the the kid who didn't saying anything for a minute or two, still trying to 'feel' his surroundings but he shook his head.

"_Sorry…_" he apologised but Tsurugi shook his head, saying to him, "It's fine. Just tell me once you sense anyone else nearby like earlier." Tsurugi told and the spirit nodded eagerly and simply continued, closing his eyes and focusing as hard as he could to find Sword's friends. It was a surprise for to learn that the ghost had actually possessed such an ability but it was a pleasant surprised nonetheless. The ability to 'feel' and 'sense' one's surrounding to see what usually cannot... It was a tempting allure that made him almost wish he was dead as well. Almost.

Tsurugi took out a band and a glove from his pocket and laid it out in front of the ghost. It took only moment the spirit to familiarise himself again with the auras left behind on them by their owners.

The captain's band and the right glove of a goalkeeper…their second goalkeeper to be exact.

Time goes by as he watches the spirit's attempts to find his friends.

…then the ghost opened his eyes.

* * *

***CLANG!*** went the piece of metal, clamping with huge jaws the size of a shark.

Tenma was shaking and Shindou looked around to see if there was anymore, prodding a fallen branch unto to the ground to spring up anything else.

"It looks like it's safe to continue on. Let's go." he said and Tenma followed obediently behind. There were so many that he had lost count and he was starting to wonder if they were even set there to only trap animals.

Shindou stopped halfway again. He looked around, wondering if he heard what he heard. He grabbed his junior quickly and dove into a shallow cleft, covering his junior mouth to keep him from making a sound.

"Hmf?!" Tenma muffled his question but the older boy shushed him and held him down, pulling some enmeshed leaves and branches on top of them.

"Be quiet!" he scolded, scanning the area quickly and waited for something. Anything.

"…ou sure they're there?"

Both Tenma and Shindou thought they had heard a bomb going off because they just couldn't believe what they had heard.

"That's Tsurugi!" Tenma whispered jubilantly but Shindou wasn't sure.

"Okay. And slow down! Let me catch my breathe!" Tsurugi said.

Shindou moved his body forward a bit to listen into the conversation to find out as much as he could. He then thought for a moment and he slowly pulled back with Tenma, reaching into his rucksack for something else he had packed when Tenma wasn't looking.

"Stay here." Shindou whispered to a confused Tenma, passing the bag over to him and he crawled out into the open, poking his head out to see Tsurugi at a distance down and wondering if there was anyone else. He was shaking nervously, his hand in his pocket.

"Shindou? Tenma?" Tsurugi called out from just below from where his two friends were, still was trekking up the slope and trying to keep up with the small ghost who ran up the mountain in a sprint but when he turned, came back down again to Tsurugi to check on him and maybe to poke fun a little.

"_Do you want stop?_" the ghost asked teasingly.

"Be quiet!" Tsurugi snapped with a gasp as he shook his head. "And you keep saying **there** but where is **there**?"

The ghost pointed up ahead of them as an answer. "_There is there. But are you sure we should go? I can feel that one them is very scared and very agitated_."

"Don't worry, that's probably Tenma." Tsurugi answered. "He really gets scared easily like that and besides, you said he's with someone, right? Then that's probably Shindou. He's a trustworthy, caring person and so I'm sure he's taking good care of Tenma."

"_Okay_." he answered, watching Tsurugi worriedly as he trudged through the dirt covered in sweat with his jacket tied around his waist, obviously too hot for him. "_Are you tired, Sword?_"

"Well, what do you think?" he asked sarcastically and the ghost giggled and zipped up ahead of him.

"_Then come on and hurry!_" the ghost teased playfully. "_Or should I slow down for you?_"

"Oh, cut me some slack!" the striker snapped angrily and the ghost came back giggling in a blink of his eyes.

"_So I should slow down?_" he asked laughing.

"That's not it all! I'm just tired! The only reason why you aren't in because you're-" Tsurugi said but stopped to think. He didn't want to point out such tragic thing and make him go crazy again like in the bathroom before. "You're…younger than me! Age gets to you at this time!"

"_But you're only just a couple of years older me_." the ghost said. "_And when you think about, Mister said I died lots of years ago so really, you're much younger than me._"

"I mean it physically." Tsurugi said.

"_…I'm okay with being dead._" the ghost said and Tsurugi felt a jab of guilt. He looked at the ghost who didn't look happy but not sad either. It was an impassive expression of nothing.

"Do you mean that?" Tsurugi asked and the ghost took his time but he nodded his head softly.

"_But it gets lonely._" he finished. Tsurugi wasn't sure what to say because the situation was so unfamiliar to him. He turned the two continued on. "_Hey, what do you plan to do after this?_"

"Easy. Go back home and pretend this never happened." Tsurugi answered and the ghost nodded, following him. "What do you plan to do?"

"_I don't know._" the ghost answered.

"Well, you have to decide." Tsurugi said. "We'll be leaving once this is over. You can probably return to the museum if you'd like."

"_Yes…I probably should._" answered the ghost, disheartened.

"Or if you'd like, you're free to stay with us." Tsurugi offered and the ghost jumped with joy at what he heard.

"_Really?!"_ he asked, absolutely thrilled.

Tsurugi shrugged. Stranger things have happened before and in comparison, the ghost was definitely the most pleasant. He was unaware of the suspicion he was casting upon himself as he approached his friends and Shindou was growing more anxious. Shindou's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Who is he talking to?"

Theories began to pop up in his thoughts, none of which he could explain which only furthered his paranoias. Was he wearing a wire and talking with that monster? Was he being threatened to find them? Were they being watched that very moment?

He cursed at how much of a loss he was at. He usually would know what to do but now he was rendered helpless and that also meant he and Tenma were helpless and that was something he couldn't take. He went back to where Tenma was hiding and pulled some more leaves and branches over on top of him

"Tenma, no matter what happens, stay here until I tell you to come out." he told the midfielder and he went out quietly, ignoring his inquiries as to why he was leaving. Tsurugi was a friend, wasn't he? Then shouldn't he be relieved? But if this could be a trap…

**"**_**And you needn't worry. I won't hurt him that much. He might even enjoy it."**_

He had to make sure it wasn't…for Tenma's sake.

He slowly crept back out but he kept behind a tree, not wanting to be spotted by his friend too quickly.

"Tsurugi?" Shindou asked. "Is that you? Are you alone?"

Tsurugi stopped and looked ahead quickly to where he thought he heard Shindou's and by his side, a ghost happily clapped his hands.

_"See! I told you I felt someone!"_ the ghost said proudly and Tsurugi nods his head. He was still surprised at how much he had done but the praises could wait until later.

"Shindou, it's good to hear from you! I thought-" he answered in relief but as soon he came closer, Shindou panicked and screamed at him, "Don't come closer! Are you alone?!"

Tsurugi stopped, surprised to hear the peaceful Shindou yelling threats at him with clear malice in his voice which was something he usually would do, not his polar opposite Shindou.

"What are you talking about? It's me, Tsurugi so don't worry." Tsurugi said, taking a step closer but Shindou just cursed.

"I don't care! Just tell me if you're alone or not!" He yelled without sense of amiability because he really didn't care it was Tsurugi. He wouldn't have cared even if was Sangoku.

_T_he ghost slunk back and looked up to his friend. "_Sword, you called him..?"_

"Shindou." Tsurugi finished with a whisper.

"_God…child._" the ghost managed to utter. "_But I thought you said that it was Heaven…"_

That was what Tsurugi thought too. Tenma was eager and was easily amazed and surprised; hence, easy to frighten on certain occasions, especially when it came to situations like these in which he would usually panic outright. But this time, it was Shindou.

The ghost held his arm for support, looking over to someone who looked as though he was completely possessed by his own rage."_Your friend is very scary._"

Tsurugi said nothing to him but he agreed, he was very scary.

"Yes. I am alone." he answered, hold his hand so that he wouldn't get scared.

Shindou peeked out from behind a tree to make sure Tsurugi was telling the truth and there he stood alone or at least as far he could see, not noticing the invisible phantom next to him.

He sighed, relieved and stepping out into the path but he said nothing to Tenma, gesturing his hand to tell him not to come out yet.

Shindou finally stepped out completely, now face to face with someone who considered a 'friend' in what felt like an eternity but he kept his distance and Tsurugi frowned at Shindou, seeing not his teammate but a completely different but very familiar person. The predatory glare in his eyes, the way his back arched defensively, the how he breathed with so much anger and hostility… It was like seeing the shell of himself back when he was a SEED.

"Shindou? What happened to you?" Tsurugi asked him and his teammate looked around anxiously, not even paying attention to Tsurugi. He couldn't help but wonder why he was only wearing his soccer jersey, sure he would have been wearing the same thing as him.

"So you're really alone?" he asked desperately and the striker eyed the spirit before nodding his head. Shindou sighed happily, crying a bit of tears from joy.

"Sorry." Shindou apologised. "But…"

"But what?" Tsurugi but he just shook his head.

"No. It's nothing." Shindou answered. "It's just good to see you."

"Yeah…same here." Tsurugi answered with lump in his throat as he remembered about a certain teammate who lying in the hospital room back in town, not noticing the ghost beside him suddenly jolting shudder with a cold sensation flooding through him. "You should know-"

"_Sword!"_ the ghost yelled, making Tsurugi yelp in shock in turn surprising the other male who began to eye Tsurugi suspiciously.

"Gah! Why the heck?!" he yelled to the ghost.

"Tsurugi?!" Shindou asked, taking a few steps back and fearing that the man somewhere nearby.

"Well-I just stubbed my foot." Tsurugi answered quickly, not sure how he would buy that a ghost of all things screamed at his ears.

"Yeah right! You didn't move at all!" he yelled back angrily. "What's happening, Tsurugi?! Are you really alone?!"

_"Sword."_

"Wha- Of course I am." he snapped angrily.

"Then who did you just yell out?!" Shindou asked.

"Why are you asking so much questions?!" Tsurugi said.

"Why aren't you answering?!" Shindou asked back.

"_Sword…_"

Tenma peeked his head out worriedly. He could hear them screaming like a boat's fog horn had a baby with an airplane's engine. This was fairly normal but what if the old man heard their voices reverberating through the mountain and found them? He should still be at that rundown shack but with tones they were using…

"SHUT UP AND TELL ME WHY YOU'RE ACTING SO WEIRD!" Shindou demanded, screaming away his voice.

"YOU'RE THE ONE ACTING WEIRD! WHY ARE YOU SO UPTIGHT ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT I'M ALONE?! ISN'T THAT A GOOD THING!?" Tsurugi yelled.

"_Sword!_" the ghost yelled again for the fourth time but like before, his voice went unheard, slowly fading as the argument grew and it was harder since only the golden-eyed boy could hear him.

"_Sword, stop it please and listen to me!_" the the ghost pleaded. "_It's important!_"

"THAT'S BECAUSE YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING!" Shindou replied and he felt *this* close to losing it.

"THEN HURRY UP AND TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON!" Tsurugi stated.

"_SWORD!_" the ghost yelled. "_STOP IT! Stop it and just listen to me! Something is co-_"

Tsurugi failed to hear the end of that sentence. A loud noise erupted, reminiscences of it still buzzing through the air. Birds and other animals flew away quickly from the all too familiar sound but Tsurugi just stared in shock and his ghost companion froze, holding his hands over his mouth.

For Shindou, it didn't really hurt at first. It felt like a simple pressure, similar to what you feel when a nurse starts pumping air into the _sphygmomanometer_ when it's around your arm. But eventually he could feel the pain sink in along with the realisation that he had just been shot clean through in the shoulder.

Before either could say or do anything else, two consecutive blasts of gunpowder rang out and both Shindou and Tsurugi collapsed on the ground like a lifeless corpse, blood now streaming from both their heads and all in front of the young midfielder, still hiding shakily under the makeshift cover.

"Shindou…? Tsurugi…?" Tenma whispered fearfully, nearly breaking a tear when he saw Tsurugi picking himself painfully. Shindou was too weak to move but managed to let a sore moan.

Tenma was just too happy a first until another shot rang out, this time hitting a tree behind Tsurugi and the two got the idea quickly.

Tsurugi ran over to Shindou's side just with a side-step, narrowly dodging the third bullet and he quickly grabbed the injured captain and lied down behind a a monstrous tree for cover which proved hard and thick enough to stop and deflect two more oncoming fires.

The assault stopped, making Tsurugi wonder whether they were safe. He peeked his head out and another shot rang and Tsurugi quickly turned behind the tree, seeing the bullet's impact on the trunk with some bits of wood skin flying as the piece of lead hopped over on the ground in front of him three times.

Tsurugi let out a tiny curse while doing what he can to help Shindou, who was still bleeding by the thigh and head. It was horrible but not as serious as Kirino's injuries. He wrapped Shindou's shoulder with his jacket which made him remember that Shindou wasn't wearing his. "So why aren't you wearing jacket?" he asked.

"J-JACKET?! At a time like this?!" Shindou snapped.

"Well-What else am I supposed to say?!" Tsurugi said back. "Run? We can't run when while there's a gun trained on our heads and we certainly can't fight!"

"But my jacket?!" Shindou said, getting up while holding his graze which unlike Tsurugi's scrape of flesh, opened up like a sinkhole. "There are better things to ask than that!"

"Okay, then where is your jacket so we can change the subject like how to get out of here!" he said back with a surly tone.

"It's not with me, obviously!" Shindou snapped. "I gave it to…oh-oh no!"

"What is it?" Tsurugi asked worriedly.

And then two more fires echoed through and Tenma's pained shriek let out more than loud enough for the three of them to hear.

Tenma had been twice in one leg. He screamed out from the pain but he screamed again when a muscled suddenly dug into his brown, forcing his head down for a moment, muffling his cries before he found himself being pulled up and it was the most painful feeling he ever felt to be dangled inches off the ground with only his hair to keep him falling and he could feel the skin on his head practically tearing from his weight. He turned to see, much to his horror, who else but the man who had kidnapped him and Shindou with a demonic-like expression and a rifle on his other hand.

Tsurugi was too shocked to say anything. He just couldn't believe who was he seeing!

"Is-is that-?!" he said, trembling in his words. Shindou with a bitter expression, glared angrily at the monster. He looked in their direction but instead of dropping Tenma to fire his gun, he did something much worse. He slammed Tenma against a nearby craggy wall of the mountain and to but their outrage, he raised his foot and kicked Tenma where he had shot him, causing another, even more painted shriek from Tenma as held his back down with his free.

Tenma's leg was screaming and when thought nothing could be worse than what was happening, the hand clamped tightly on his hair pulled back with such a powerful that it only took two more hard tugs before Tenma his hair being ripped out from skin. With torturous session finished, the old man let go Tenma, dropping him callously on the ground sobbing hysterically as he felt his head bleeding.

The old man looked back at the tree, stuffing the strands of hair in his pocket and his left hand twitching for his rifle's trigger, eyeing it angrily.

Just behind it, Tsurugi was shaking angrily. He wanted to run out with Kensei Lancelot and literally **kill** him right there and then but as tempting as it sounded, Shindou couldn't let him go.

"That son of-!" Tsurugi cursed, hearing Tenma's cries.

"Calm down, Tsurugi!" Shindou told him with his teeth grinding. "He's just doing this so we would run out there and get shot down like rabbits!"

"Then what do we do then?" Tsurugi asked. If we don't do something then he's going to kill him!"

The old man became impatient. He looked down to see Tenma still whimpering and was actually trying desperately to crawl away from him. He didn't show anything but there was a glint in his eyes. "And where do you think you're going?"

"I don't know!" Shindou admitted. "Maybe we can use a hissatsu to distract him. I'll use 'Olympus Harmony' again to-"

"**Mmfp! Hhhrmr!**"

The two startled and turned to see what was happening and there they saw the old man standing on top of Tenma with his rifle nearly four inches deep into Tenma's throat who was struggling to breath with it slowly moving deeper into his mouth, who could only cry, fearing that if he moved, the gunman would _accidentally_ pull the trigger he played with on finger.

"Tenma!?" Shindou yelled at the sight, going up to try and stop him from firing but then the old man pulled the trigger and everything suddenly turned cold for Shindou.

Tsurugi looked out with horror as he saw one more friend completely covered in blood from head to toe. Tenma stared in shock as well as he saw Shindou stagger, his left side completely and the man who had shot him was facing him and there, Tenma wouldn't forget it. He saw finally smile.

"Shindou!" Tenma screamed and much to his own horror, Tsurugi came out as well to help him. It wasn't that was careless, it was just a reaction but one the man fully exploited and fired another round and the ever so powerful and infamous striker fell down on the cold dirt and Tenma broke down, getting up quickly and tried to to run towards them the he felt another pull on his hair and he fell back.

"It's no use." he said coldly. "Now come on like a good boy."

"No! Shindou! Tsurugi! Help me!" Tenma yelled madly in tears but the old man gave him one hard blow to his face using his fists and Tenma fell back down.

Tsurugi let out a weak moan, wondering what had happened as the world spun around. He looked over to see Shindou on the ground and he wasn't moving. He turned his attention over to the blurred screaming and there he saw Tenma struggling violently with their **attacker** on him, binding his arms with his own jacket.

"Ten…" Tsurugi muttered as he watched helplessly Tenma being dragged away by the old man, holding firmly his arms as he continued to fight and struggle, each time calling out either to him or Shindou to save him.

"Tsurugi! Get up! Please get up and help me!" Tenma yelled frantically. "Shindou! Captain! Tsurugi!"

Tsurugi tried to call out to him as he tried to force his body to move but the large amount of blood he had lost made him very weak. Simply keeping conscious had become a difficult task and could do nothing but hear Tenma's crying fade away with the old man's abusive snaps to keep him in line until they were finally gone. It was only then in life's irony that he began to come around and began to regain control over his body. He finally managed to force himself up on his arms and as quickly as he could, he staggered over to Shindou to see if he was fine like him but an open, bloody wound on his neck was there to greet him.

"Shindou!" Tsurugi said quickly shook him, hoping he hadn't died.

"…ugh." he groaned weaklu. "Don't worry…I'll be fine…just go get Tenma before..."

"I can't do that! You're injured and the man has a gun!" Tsurugi said much to his own dismay as he could imagine hearing another fire from the accursed contraption.

"Listen to me…" Shindou said, pointing towards the bag that had been left behind, barely visible under the piles of dead foliage. "You have to look inside."

Not knowing what else to do, Tsurugi went and took the bag and looked inside as he had been instructed. There wasn't much inside except food, water, a pin, and a book with a '_**#12**_" sprawled on it. He took the book with curiosity and began flipping through the pages and inside it contained the purest of evil and cruelty he had ever witnessed. Never had he ever encountered something so violent and inhuman in the most polished form it could ever be. Senguuji Daigo…Kibayama Douzan…the entire Fifth Sector…none of them held even close to the contents of this simple book. It was actually an album to be precise and inside it contained photos of children, young students students, young women, several young boys…

And each photo of them progressed worse and worse. It first started with bounds and gags with them covered in bruises with tears in their eyes but soon he saw them crying blood with cuts, wounds, and black and purple patches all over, disfiguring them completely. Articles of clothing vanished bit by bit as their tortures grew more animalistic until finally it ended with a bone-chilling, heart-breaking sight.

One was of a naked women hanging from the ceiling in a battered state with lacerations scored all over her body but little blood drip out. There just wasn't any left. Another, a boy much younger than him in the same state with stab wounds everywhere and a gag stuffed in his mouth, his eyes still open but there was nothing inside. The next, she was only a little girl and there she was tied on a chair nude with a tightrope around her neck. Dry tears stained on her cheek and dried blood just every where else. Perhaps the most upsetting was one of another boy around his age because Tsurugi recognised him. He played against him just years earlier. He was a member among one of the teams he had defeated back when he was SEED and he remembered him well as he moved months later. He speculated it was because he hadn't taken the lost very well but there he was in the album, in tears tied up into a ball with clothes slashed, torn, and bloodied and the date it read on the photo was a mere two weeks after their match.

And what's worst of all…none of them had brown hair and silver eyes and when he counted them, they were twenty-one in total, eleven numbers higher than the list of victims who reportedly died within the forest and each one of them were obviously taken at different places, some he could recognise as parts of Inazuma Town.

"Do you understand now…?" Shindou whispered staring away, unable to look at the striker. "He told me everything. It's not just people with certain features… He targets anyone he can. This whole thing was just to keep the everyone looking for one serial killer…so much, when he struck a normal person who didn't fit it, no one would realise it was him."

Tsurugi didn't respond. This was too much, even for him. The shear wonder of the true number of people who fell victim to him was simply too frightening of a thought. His reach had extended all the way to their hometown and none of them had even noticed he was there. He looked at the cover the read the '**_#12_**' with a better understanding and it was absolutely terrifying. These people definitely weren't his first and they certainly weren't his last. How many albums did that man have? How many people were inside each one? How many of them were strangers to him and not people he had bumped into on the street? And more direly, how many of them are still alive?

It was too overwhelming. He felt like vomiting again but the possibility of Tenma being added within his next album quickly replaced every bit of that feeling with pure rage. Shindou could see that and he took out what he had been hiding the entire time in his pocket, a knife. A very big and sharp hunting knife.

"Sorry, I wasn't sure if I could trust you." he said weakly. Strangely, Tsurugi was all right with it. In fact, he was more than happy and took the knife. He helped Shindou up against the tree, tearing off a part of his jacket that was already tied around his friend's leg and carefully but quickly tied it around his neck in hopes it would help staunch the bleeding.

"I'm sorry but I'll see if I can get you help. " Tsurugi said and then hastily left Shindou alone.

Shindou could only manage a smile as he saw him leave as he could no longer continue moving, having been starved for a day and still reeling from all of what he suffered under his captivity. He wasn't sure if he was going to make either. He looked one more time at the overbearing dirtied album that Tsurugi had left with him, as if it was taunting him somehow.

Tsurugi, as he ran through the forest, couldn't shake off that there was something else about those photos that he also should have seen. Thinking back to what he had read in all those newspaper articles, he finally realised what was bothering him.

**_...each child was tortured and raped before they died._**

**_"Do you understand now…?" Shindou whispered..._**

"Don't tell me…" Tsurugi thought, shaking more than ever now. "Shindou, you..."

**_"He told me everything. It's not just people with certain features… He targets anyone he can…"_**

It was so quiet, as if the forest itself was grieving and all alone once more, Shindou wept bitterly to himself.

* * *

_Comblike, springing __guillotine-_ I couldn't find a full description but I saw this once on television. It is a type of trap made to kill small animals. It is built like a normal tripwire trap except instead of releasing a snare, it releases a hold on the end of a flexible but hard object and sends it fly slamming on the animal. To make sure the animal would be dead, sharp ends are added on the side to impale the prey when the trap hits them.

_Metal...with huge_ jaws- This is a type of metal foothold trap.

_En-_ Pronunciation of '円' in Endou's name. Alone, it means round or money.

_God...child_- When separated, this is the individual translation of the characters in Shindou's surname.

_Heaven_- Translation of the first character in Tenma's name.


	10. The Penultimate

**Author's Note**: Sorry this took long and a good thing I finished it. Finals are coming.

* * *

As each step grew heavier from the weight of the ground clinging unto the ends of his pants and the soles of his shoes, Tsurugi had no choice but to continue forward unless he wanted Tenma to die. He gasped exhaustedly as he was just literally wandering around. He had to locate Tenma as quickly as possible but that would have been much easier if…

"Tch! Where is that little kid?!" Tsurugi silently cursed. The ghost child who had helped him along the way had taken a very fine time to disappear on him and it was the absolute worst time of all. Without him to locate Tenma, time what could have been spent coming closer to ending this whole tragedy slipped little by little into what could be an even greater tragedy. He wouldn't know how to live with himself if something as horrible being raped or beaten happened to Tenma. And if he died in the same agony as all those other people, there would be no possible way of going back and fixing it unlike with all his mistakes in Fifth Sector which now made him second guess if it all could be fixed as fully as he had thought. Most likely, no. If that was the case, then how could he fix this?

"Where could they have gone?!" Tsurugi wondered desperately and then out went a high pop in the air to stop ponders and it sounded exactly like a firecracker but it was something much darker and the boy knew that. Then one more cracked into the air and then another and then another, each appearing more quickly than the last until it became an orchestra of crazed firing that rung in the air. If only at least one had had struck his heart for real, then at least he would know they were meant for him and not for the brunette whose image suddenly faded in his mind in a dark, crimson color as did with fires.

* * *

"Have you seen them anywhere?" Aoi asked Shinsuke who shook his head sullen frown and he couldn't find himself able to look at Aoi with his tiny eyes. He just wasn't used to letting a friend down and it wasn't the best of feelings.

"Ugh, why did they suddenly disappear like this?" Aoi wondered nearly to tears. "Tsurugi, the ghost and now Coach too!"

"Hmn…" Shinsuke muttered with a crumple of his body with one question on their mind; where had everyone gone?

Shinsuke did what he could to calm Aoi down as she took a seat to rest in front of Kirino's situated room. They didn't think someone could have overheard their conversation or at least most of it for the only person who could have remained behind the sights of the thick whitewash walls behind them.

As the oldest, Sangoku was the only one everyone could turn to with Coach and their captain gone. Under normal circumstances, they would turn to Kirino, their captain's best friend and most loyal and trusted companion and if Shindou trusted him, they could trust him without any reservation but right now, how could they depend on someone who couldn't even draw a breath without help of a beeping box? And so the heavy burden of responsibility was passed unto their goalkeeper who wasn't feeling so up to the task as he normally would, not with everything that's happened.

He simply kept those thoughts to himself as he watched Kirino's death-like position. He could imagine seeing the flatline any moment. The rest of his teammates had gone off to look for either Coach or Tsurugi while steering clear off the forest, leaving him alone to watch over their friend and praying he just didn't die while he was sitting there.

Outside, Aoi did her best to be strong and wiped away her tears and Shinsuke couldn't have felt more relieved.

"I know they'll be all right! Let's just keep our spirits high!" Shinsuke encouraged happily and Aoi nodded her head with an eased smile.

"Oh well. With that kid following Tsurugi around, at least there'll be someone to keep him in control." Aoi sighed.

It was just then a frantic scream pierced their ears that made them jump. Aoi, startled, quickly got up and ran for the door but it slid open before she could get a hold of the metal pocket and once it slid open, Sangoku stood there and they could here a fraught of coughing and gagging behind him bursting in volumes.

Before they could ask what was happening, Sangoku yelled out to them in a distraught plea, "Go call the doctor!"

* * *

Tsurugi ran frantically towards to what he thought was the source of the shots. It was fairly hard not to miss considering how many times it was rapidly firing before going to a cold silence. The sudden stillness in the air made his stomach twist as his worse fears and paranoia began to get the better of his now vulnerable and shaky mind. Thoughts of failing began to materialise vividly in front of his eyes. He could practically see it happening whenever he pushed away a sagging brach or fronds of outstretched leaves, his instincts telling him over and over, "_He's dead! He's dead and just just over there is his body!_"

Of course, he came to see nothing but it only served to push the hope crushing voice further as it continued whispering into his ear with only a small desperate optimism to keep him going.

As he continued on running through the rocky ground and leafy surroundings, his feet began to grow red from the soaring pain of trekking so messily as he had. His pace began to slow down to the movements of a groggy little garden snail crawling over a line of broken glass and the pain felt about the same.

"Come on! Where are you?!" Tsurugi screamed out, hoping the old timer heard him so at least if Tenma was still alive, maybe he could avert former's attention over to him. He was certainly successful in grabbing someone's attention but it wasn't the old man.

A hiding man who heard him twitched with his shoulders as turned back to from where Tsurugi's voice reverberated. He wrapped his arms tightly around his own white jacket and stepped out from under the small shelter of a thicket of of thorny bushes that tore a bit of from his own clothes as it pierced into his skin without any thinker coating to protect him but he didn't mind.

Tsurugi continued around but now he was starting to worry. He had been yelling and screaming for a while now, long enough for anyone or anything to notice him but absolutely nothing. There were no fires and no one was coming for him. Then what did that mean?! He was practically tearing his brain to nothing but nerves trying to come up with a rational explanation that didn't involve seeing Tenma's corpse or the old man camouflaging himself within a nearby bush training a gun to his head. His fears only took a leap when he finally heard a rushed set of rustling leaves heading his way.

He took out the hunting knife from his pocket which unlike him was clean with a glint sheen from its smooth skin end but it wouldn't be that way for long, he thought to himself with a bloody intention as he hid himself as best as he could, wanting to strike at a weak point before the old man could react and giving himself a decent advantage.

Just meters away, the man stopped, his reliable instincts telling him something was wrong. He set down what he held into a tiny hole made under the roots of a tree probably dug in by some animal or was somehow formed in there naturally. Still, it proved a great hiding place and he quickly pulled some leaves and branches to cover it before continuing on down and he passed some tree when he felt a sharp sting across his other arm and it wasn't pleasant at all. Thanks to his soccer training though, his reaction to these sorts of things were decent. Shaky but enough that instead pushing his attacker away and running, he turned with his right hand balled into a fist with it giving an orange glow and it began to manifest around it. And with that, he screamed the move's name, "_Seigi no Tekken_!" and then whatever it was the large, glowing, orange fist hit landed about a few feet away upon a thud.

He mentally cursed as he tended his left arm with a huge wide opening which felt too painful to move around but it was better than his shoulders getting brunt of it. He could either thank good old lady luck or sigh in relief that whoever attacked him wasn't really going for a kill or seeking to cause some permanent damage. He turned and ran quickly towards his attacker, ready to dish a second a blow for good measure when he stopped upon his body and realised who it was. "Tsurugi?!" he yelled.

Tsurugi was as shocked to see his Coach and the realisation that he had attacked him. He got up quickly to apologise but Endou then simply came forward and punched him across the shoulder before he could say anything.

"**That was for not listening to me.**" he said with a calm tone ready to explode. "**I thought we already discussed what would happen the next you all disobeyed me.**"

"Nkh-!" Tsurugi muttered without even hiding his fears this time. "I was-"

"Don't say anything. I've a good idea already." said Endou while tying his headband just above his bleeding bleeding wound as a tourniquet. "And I can't believe you did something this stupid! You could've been killed!"

Tsurugi could only get back up while shaking "But if we don't help Tenma-"

"Tenma is already safe. It you who obviously isn't! Just look at yourself!" Endou said as looked at Tsurugi with a gaze one would give out of pity to a dying wild animal and Tsurugi resembled that so much, it scared the older man a bit that he might drop dead there and then.

"I'm fine! It sho-…walt, what?!" Tsurugi said, his eyes jolting up and he ran and grabbed Endou's shirt and clenched the fabric tight. "Tenma's safe?! How-?!"

"Calm down." Endou tried tell him but Tsurugi could only hear his own voice. Everything else had been blocked out completely as he continued shaking him.

"Just tell me where he is!" he yelled frantically and Endou struck his face one more time with the movement of his wide open hand.

"Tsurugi Kyousuke. Calm down. And breathe." the Coach dictated autocratically in segments as he looked at the boy, holding the boy's shoulder with his undamaged arm and forced him to look at him as he quieted the dismayed child.

"Gnk…" Tsurugi breathed out with a heavy woe.

"It's fine. I can understand why you're acting this way." Endou told him with genuine concernment. "He's a little shaken and blue but he's holding up well. Better than expected actually."

And suddenly, all the weight that slowly mounted on him lightened. He could almost cry there and then but the key word here is almost. He was still out there.

"W-what about the old man?" he asked with a cold tone. Endou's face snapped quickly and he bit his bottom lip with with an angry show as he remembered the violence he had seen earlier.

"Sorry, but please don't ask me." Endou answered as glanced back up into forest. "I was just strolling around when I heard a commotion and… I just got him away from him. But after we ran a far enough distance, I suddenly heard him screaming and then there was a shot then several more and then it turned into a frenzy of fires. I thought it was at us first until I realised that he was screaming at someone to get away from him."

It was the same description of the shots he had heard but the screaming was something new to him most likely because he was too far away to hear it over the shots.

"I'm still not sure if that's what he said but the last I heard of him was after shots stopped. I heard him scream."

"Scream? Scream what?" Tsurugi asked but Endou just shrugged.

"No. Just a regular scream and he sounded terrified." Endou answered but instead of comforting him, it made him more angry and he couldn't understand why. One thing was sure, if he was still alive, he just couldn't let him waltz around free.

"Tsurugi?!" Endou yelled, shocked as Tsurugi got up quickly and pushed him aside and began running up the hill quickly in sprints with sudden bursts of energy. The Coach knew what was going through his mind and got up quickly as he yelled out again, beckoning him to come back.

"Stop! Tsurugi!" he yelled, grabbing him within an eagle's grip. "Will you calm down for a moment?!"

"Let go of me! I've been trying okay!" he yelled back angrily with his voice reverberating out of his shaky body. Endou didn't say anything. Tsurugi stared back as he tried to maintain himself again and Endou sighed.

"You're not in the state to go after him." Endou said finally and all Tsurugi could do was give a tired huff. "Let's pass by somewhere first." Endou then suggested with calm smile. "I left Tenma hiding alone inside a hole. I'll go see what happened with that guy and you stay and keep watch over him."

And suddenly, Tsurugi felt a little more at ease. He sighed and nodded but he kept looking around while fidgeting the knife in his hand. Endou gave Tsurugi a simple look of pity but said nothing more and simply led him to where Tenma was hiding.

"We need to hurry. We need to pass by another place too." Tsurugi said. "It's just over there. Shindou's-"

"Shindou? Say no more." Endou said. "We'll fetch him once we find him. If he's strong enough to stand against you then he'll be fine, I assure you."

"Hmh." Tsurugi found him himself mumbling with a humbled nod.

"Here. This where I hid him." Endou said with a grin and he hurried down to the tree with Tsurugi following as his broken body could but upon arrival, Endou was surprised. The twigs and dead leaves he had pulled over the hole was out of the way and the hole itself was barren.

"Uh-oh." Endou muttered and it didn't go unnoticed by Tsurugi who stopped at the four letters.

"What happened?" he asked when he saw the empty space and all his fears came rushing back. "Where is he?!"

"If I knew that I wouldn't be worrying." Endou answered with an ache in his arm.

"Damn it!" Tsurugi cursed and just when he had thought it was over this had to happen.

"He couldn't have gone far in his state. Let's try looking around." Endou said. Tsurugi cursed as he was about to answer when a very familiar voice spoke up from behind in an ecstatic glee.

"_Sword!_" the small voice greeted happily behind them as he zipped over quickly before Endou realised that he was there and by the time he turned, there he was right in front of him and it gave him a shock as he stepped back.

"Urk, how long were you there?" Endou asked.

"_Um, not long! I just got here._" the ghost said but he frowned. "_What happened to your arm? It's all drippy with red stuff._"

Endou simply pointed towards Tsurugi with a grunt and the ghost quivered.

"_What? Sword wouldn't do that!_" the ghost said. "_Oh, Sword, look at you! You're hurt!_"

"Where were you?" Tsurugi asked darkly and the ghost flinched.

"_Huh?_" the ghost asked.

"I'm asking where you suddenly disappeared off to!" Tsurugi yelled and the ghost yelped and hid behind Endou who was now beginning to worry.

"Tsurugi, is everything all right?" Endou asked.

"No!" Tsurugi said. "He suddenly ran away while I was looking for Tenma!"

"Well, let's keep our heads." Endou said. "Let's hear him out first. He probably had a good reason for leaving you."

"What good reason was there for him to leave?!" Tsurugi yelled. "I couldn't find Tenma because he was gone!"

"Tsurugi-" Endou said to calm him down but he wouldn't listen.

"No! Tenma could have died!" Tsurugi said. "I don't care what excuses he had. The little brat should have stayed!"

"Tsurugi!" Endou said with the ghost behind looking down with a tiny mumble. "I can understand why you're angry but shouting at him won't make things any better? Besides, Tenma didn't die."

"The problem is that it could have happened!" Tsurugi spatted and the ghost clenched Endou shirt tightly.

"_I'm really sorry for leaving. Please don't be angry._"

"Give me one good reason as to why I shouldn't be angry at you!" Tsurugi yelled, walking up angrily at him but Endou quickly moved to keep the ghost safely behind him.

"_Mm…_" the ghost whimpered shakily.

"That's enough!" Endou said. "Whatever happened we can sort it out later."

"No! There is no later! He shouldn't have run away like a milksop!" Tsurugi said angrily. " Why should he even be scared!? He's a ghost! He's already dead so what reason does he need to even be scared?!"

"Tsurugi...!" Endou said.

"_Sword…_" the ghost whimpered. softly "_I'm sorry. Really. So please, no more yelling. I don't like it._"

"Ugh, just shut up for a moment!" Tsurugi snapped angrily, unwittingly striking another cord. "You were the one who said that you would stay by my side! So much for your lies!"

The ghost winced with his words echoing through his mind. "_Lie…me? Lie?_"

_**"Liar! You're lying! This is all your fault! Your fault! YOURS!" **_

_**"SHUT UP! Just shut up for once you stupid, moronic, spoiled brat! This isn't my fault, you hear!?" **_

And to the pair's surprise and confusion, the ghost flickered away like a candle flame.

"Hey get back here!" Tsurugi yelled and then another crack sounded through the air but this time it wasn't from any metal striking the gunpowder. Tsurugi staggered with his cheek swelling from the blood rushing into it. The boy turned to face the man who struck him who was glaring back as well with a fury he hadn't felt in very long time since he learned about his friend and Fifth Sector.

"THAT IS ABSOLUTELY ENOUGH!" he yelled.

"What was that?! Tsurugi yelled, unable to notice that Endou had held out just little, failing to see that just seconds before reaching his face it was glowing an enraged burst of red fire. He was still too angry to hear him as he muttered "_nekketsu_…" contritely to himself.

"I don't care how angry you are!" Endou yelled. "Look me in the eye and give me one decent reason that you had every right to yell at him like that!"

"I never said I did!" he yelled back but Endou did nothing narrow his eyes into him more. "So tell me then as to why you yelled such things at him. He's only eight."

"He's a thousand years-old!" Tsurugi said. "He just looks eight!"

"And thinks like one as well." Endou reminded him.

"Then he has to grow up!" Tsurugi said. "The world isn't all sugar sweet and kind all the time!"

"Perhaps not." Endou said. "He just assumed that his friend would be."

Alas, his words finally stung Tsurugi who suddenly turned cold upon what he meant. Endou needn't say further at how extensive the damage he had caused was, especially since this was the second time for the poor child to be turned on by someone close and the first time, well, he remembered how that ended clearly.

"He's just around. You know him." Tsurugi said quietly with a hung head. He hoped he was right but Endou simply turned and went to look around. It was then the two jolted as they heard a noise of twigs snapping and dead leaves crunching and when they turned; there was a person. Definitely a human being but he was hidden so densely behind the wooden trunks that neither could even make out his age.

"What was that?" Endou wondered.

"Is it him?" Tsurugi said angrily and suddenly bolted up again to Endou's shock and frustration.

"Tsu-Damn it not again!" he cursed. He ran up after him but it was an amazing thing. Despite the state of his body, the boy was actually outrunning him! The ex-captain of their country's national team now in his twenties was falling behind to an injured child. This was one more example of the amazing abilities brought upon by human desperation. But what was he desperate for? Was he hoping it would be the old man, no doubt to seek vengeance. Or was he hoping it was the little ghost to apologise? Or was he hoping it was Tenma whom he was sickly worried about? Endou prayed to the gods that it wasn't the old man or he would be forced to fight Tsurugi for real.

In a span of of a minute, Tsurugi had managed to cover around two hundred meters of the ground soil mound and eventually ran so far ahead, Endou began to lose sight of with the forest's plenty twig arms and it proved more troubling for him as he had to memorise each new step to keep them both from getting lost.

He cursed at the striker tenfold as he wondered if he either really cared about what was happening or was just acting impulsively as a child like he would have ten years ago. Finally managing to arrive at where he had rescued his young protege earlier, he pushed aside leaves to glimpse the end of Tsurugi's strange ponytail-like hairstyle and he knew he finally caught up with him but something wasn't right.

"Tsurugi." Endou said angrily, walking closer and then came to a stop. Now he understood why. There was a peculiar smell in the air; the scent of iron coming from the puddle of red water that was filled with it in every drop, oozing into the ground from an impaled figure in what could be called in a way poetic justice or irony if you're feeling funny but neither wasn't what either one thought.

Everything suddenly turned into a blur for Tsurugi. With the cold steel still at hand, there wasn't much purpose for it now. So much, he began wondering why he had come in the first place.

"Tsurugi." Endou said behind him to snap him out. Tsurugi turned behind to face him, still in a dumbfounded daze. "Let's go back shall we? We still need to find Tenma." the former said without even looking at paled flesh beyond the boy who nodded a bit once he realised that he had been asked a question. He walked down as Endou helped him away and the two left without looking back.

"You okay?" Endou asked. "You're oddly quiet and you were harping complaints at me just a while ago."

Tsurugi frowned at himself, knowing what he was trying to tell him. "…Coach-"

"If it's an apology, save it." Endou said. "I'm used to being cursed and yelled at already. He isn't."

Tsurugi nodded but still feeling ashamed of himself. With that monster dead, it seemed that he had been going around making a jerk of himself for nothing. He was different now. That was what he believed up until then. So profoundly in thought, Tsurugi continued walking, questioning himself before he found himself walking into Endou's back. He looked up at him in surprise and notice how he was staring away intently. Rather than ask more questions, he moved to the side and there he saw, the black silhouette of someone perhaps around his own brother's age. It raised its hand moved the digits in a way that it was asking them to come to it.

After everything they had undergone through, both weren't sure what to make of it but…

"What do you think, Tsurugi?" Endou asked. Tsurugi only shrugged his shoulders, fearing another mistake. Endou looked back and began moving towards the figure. Suddenly, it flickered for a moment and quickly reappeared but a bit farther away. Endou and Tsurugi were surprised but continued on foot, following the strange silhouette as it led them slowly down the forest. Finally, upon reaching a vaguely familiar ground, the silhouette flickered for the last time and disappeared.

"I wonder that was." Endou muttered. Tsurugi looked around with a feeling of deja vu. The surrounding were familiar now. He could see tree with nick on the bark. It was definitely among the one he had marked so he could make his way back to Shindou. …Wait, Shindou!

"Coach, this way here!" he suddenly yelled and the Coach just sighed and began wondering when he began falling behind these kids. He followed suit behind Tsurugi. He pushed away the trees as Tsurugi followed the markings as he best could remember. He pushed away some leaves and then there he saw Shindou, still sitting under the tree in the same thrashed state as he had left him but there was someone else equated down and huddled next to him as a shaky mass was lying quietly asleep but he looked absolutely red with misery as though he had bawled agonisingly until he fell asleep.

"Tsurugi, Coach…?" Shindou said weakly, his mind muddled as his suffocated brain did its best to keep him awake.


	11. The Departure

"I don't care, I'm going with you!" the brunette said angrily as he went over to Kirino, with bandages and all covering his head and neck to hide the sutured wounds.

"Ugh, for the last time, I don't need you to come with me." Kirino sighed from his low wheelchair which he was just starting to get the hang off but his best friend was far too paranoid to listen to him.

"But what if something happens and you need help and no one's there?" Shindou said and Kirino just sighed tiredly. There was just no reasoning with him anymore.

"Fine, fine. Do what you like." he said. He was far too tired to argue with him anyway. "What about you though? Are you sure you're feeling well enough?"

"It's not a question about whether I'm ready or not. I'll can do it so don't worry." Shindou answered to Kirino's anxiousness.

"Please don't push yourself too far. Is that a promise?" he asked.

"I won't." Shindou promised but Kirino knew him better and frowned with doubt but what what could he do? His head spun again as the lethargic effects of the pain medication finally began to set in. He just wanted to get into the vehicle and sleep. Hospital beds weren't exactly the comfiest place in the world or at least that hospital's beds weren't and that was even with all the pain killers his doctors were giving him.

"Are you sure you don't need my help?" Shindou asked jokingly but was very much serious. Kirino just bit his lip and grumbled.

"Just this once…" Kirino said and Shindou breathed in relief. Kirino continued griping as wheeled himself to a small van '_specially_ _designed_' to transport people like him. Honestly, he never thought being the center of so much attention would be so exhaustingly taxing. And worse, it would be this way for at least half a year according his doctors.

"What's wrong, Kirino? You seem upset." Shindou asked quickly in concern. Kirino just sighed.

"Peachy." he said with a tone contradicting him. "Now help me into the car."

Elsewhere, Tenma was happy and about because they were finally leaving and he could go home! And how he missed the taste of real food! Anything as long as it wasn't vegetables. Sure that was nice but not all the time. "Oh! Ice cream stand!" said he.

"Ugh, stop running around will you? Some of us can't keep up!" Tsurugi panted exhaustedly after running with plenty of difficulty with his body still recovering from his heavy injuries.

"Finally we find you!" Kurama complained bitterly. "At least tell us where you're going before you leave."

"Oops, sorry." Tenma answered happily. "Did you guys want some too? Which ones would you like?"

"…Any." Tsurugi answered forcefully and Tenma pouted with an obvious feeling of guilt.

"Okay, okay! I won't do it again! Just please stop with the guilt treatment already!" Tenma whimpered. "I swear, this is worse than when you used to scold me…"

Tenma ran off after he finished to return to the caravan and Tsurugi whispered out a muddle statement to himself.

"Actually, he's got a point there." Kurama said. "It's not like you to be so tolerant of him. It's almost starting to scare me."

Tsurugi didn't answer back. He simply gave a look to him and walked away back to the caravan.

"…What on Earth happened in there?" Kurama muttered, glaring at the horrid forest before leaving.

"Aoi! Shinsuke!" Tenma greeted.

"Tenma! Where did you go?" Aoi nearly snivelled in worry.

"We ran the entire courtyard looking for you!" Shinsuke said.

"Huh? Did I worry you guys that much?" Tenma asked remorsefully. "Sorry, I just got a little excited. It feels like ages since I've gone outside." Tenma said before thinking in more carefully to his words. "I mean, well, without something to worry about."

Everyone knew what this 'something' was and was it wrong for them to be a little happy that it was gone?

"Oh, hey, Tsurugi." Tenma greeted upon seeing Tsurugi returning with Kurama still some paces behind. Tsurugi was about to greet back when he noticed the evident and persistent angry glares from his two friends behind him. He didn't sway the slightest but this would still take some getting used to. Tenma looked at the two and scowled.

"Are you sure the three of you didn't have a fight or something while I was away?" Tenma asked worriedly.

"Yes." Aoi answered crossly.

"Definitely." Shinsuke said without making eye contact.

"Nothing of any sort happened." Tsurugi told with a stiff voice. Tenma frowned and walked towards Kurama who had overheard most of the subject and he only was about to open his mouth when the other boy shook his head. "Don't ask me. They've been like this for a while now."

"Well, we should do something about it before it gets worse." Tenma said.

"Good luck then." Kurama said before walking away.

"Huh? But-" Tenma said but he was already really wasn't interested in helping after all or at least that was what Tenma thought he was trying to tell him. In reality, with so much that's happened, Kuramajust did not want to get into anything more.

"You guys, you're really bad at keeping whatever happened a secret." Tenma said. "Now what is going on?"

"Oh look, we need to go back to the caravan to do some last minute checks." Aoi said. "Why don't you come with us Tenma? We need to extra hands."

"Ugh. Of course, I'll help." Tenma answered, knowing full well that he would continue to be ignored anyway if he tried to press the subject. And anyhow, he was the helpful sort of person, more than happy to pitch in whenever he could."Come on, Tsurugi."

"Wait, he's still injured." Aoi said. "Ah, much more than you obviously. We should let him rest, don't you think so?"

Tenma gave his friend a rare, critical look. He almost came to his friend's defines but already used to being ostracised abhorrently by most, Tsurugi couldn't really blame her much as with all those '_most_' who would rightfully spurn him since much of it was something he had brought upon himself and so he remained steadfastly quiet and nodded his head.

"Just don't wander around too far away next time." he said. "Or push yourself."

"…okay." Tenma sighed quietly. "But I do feel well enough so please stop worrying so much. Even the doctors said so."

"…You're right." Tsurugi said. "I'll go find Coach then. He wanted to talk to me about something earlier until a certain _someone_ disappeared and we had to go find him."

"Hmm…I said I was sorry." Tenma muttered before leaving with Aoi and Shinsuke. Tsurugi went back to look for Coach, wondering what was so important that he wanted to see with him about.

"Hey, Kariya? Hikaru?" he called upon seeing the boy standing in front of the hospital gate, unusually calm and behaved while talking with Hikaru. "Have either of you seen Coach?" he asked. The two shook their heads but Kariya said to him, "I think Sangoku might know."

He was very blunt with his statement and with a much less enthusiastic tone now than as he usually would answer but everyone decided to let it go for the moment on as they all knew full well of the reason for his out of place quietness and it seemed right to give the boy some space. Tsurugi thanked him and left to find the goalkeeper who was probably helping the others to pack in the belongings in the caravan. He headed over there, steering clear of the forest's eerie sight. When arrived, he noticed the goalkeeper helping to carry some of the heavier bags as he had predicted, some that even he would have trouble carrying alone. "Sangoku," Tsurugi called quietly to keep either Aoi or Shinsuke from hearing him.

"Oh? What is it?" he asked as he laid two duffel bags into the caravan's luggage compartment. "And why are you whispering?"

"Have you seen Coach Endou?" Tsurugi asked and Sangoku pointed eastward saying, "I think he went around that way. He said that he would be at a green roofed convenient store buying food if anyone needed him."

"Thanks." Tsurugi said before quietly slipping away with the most noiseless sprint Sangoku had ever seen.

"Wait, you still haven't…" Sangoku tried to tell him but he was already gone and he just sighed to himself.

"Hey, Sangoku?" Tenma came suddenly while carrying a book in his hand. "I thought I heard Tsurugi."

"Yeah, you did hear him." Sangoku answered. "But he just left and in a hurry too."

"Well, did you tell him that his bag broke?" Tenma asked.

"No. He just ran off before I could-wait, is that one his?" Sangoku asked, noticing Tsurugi name written on the cover.

"Yeah! I think it's his study notes about hissatsus." Tenma answered.

"So you read it then?" Sangoku asked while containing the urge to scold him. "If Tsurugi finds this out, he's going to kill you, you know that? Just go find another bag and put it back with the rest of his belongings."

"Aw…but his notes are really insightful. I think it could help me with my hissatsus." Tenma complained.

"Well, if it's that insightful, is there anything about goalkeeping?" he asked just out of curiosity.

"Nope. Just shoot hissatsus." Tenma answered apologetically. "All of Gouenji's to be precise."

"Well, I guess I shouldn't…wait, what?" Sangoku asked.

"It's not that surprising actually that Tsurugi would study all his techniques. He was one of the best strikers in Inazuma Japan." Tenma continued on. "But he really needs to work on his note taking. All the pointers he wrote down looks almost like just a bunch compliments about him. It took me a while to realise what they really meant. Still, doesn't writing it all vaguely like this make it hard to understand? I mean, what if he forgets what it means?"

"Uh, let me see that for a moment." Sangoku asked, taking it from a Tenma's hand who was giving a weird look, probably thinking his warnings earlier. "Uhm…"

"See?" Tenma said. "I thought the part about his hair was weird until I realised that keeping your hair neat and up keeps it from blocking your view. There're stuff like that sprawled everywhere. I almost thought it was just a fan book or something."

"_That's because it is._" thought Sangoku. In his more harmless, normal mind, Tenma actually managed to scramble all of the hero-worship compliments and nonsense Tsurugi wrote in the book into non-existent, wise, perceptive observations. The goalkeeper wasn't sure whether to find this moment pitiful or laughable. "Hm… It is a bit hard to see at first but yeah, you're right."

"Should we show it to the others?" Tenma asked.

"Erm, probably not a good idea." he answered as he handed it back. "In fact, let's keep this to ourselves. Maybe this is, um, one of his…secret study…training for soccer….stuff. You know what I mean."

"Oh. You're probably right." Tenma said before running off, saying as went, "I'll go put this back with the rest of his stuff."

"Yeah. You do that." Sangoku said to him. "…pfft! Hahaa!"

"Ngh…" Tsurugi groaned, feeling as though something important of his had just been violated. He finally came along to a green-roofed store that was very small. He could see Coach through the glass walls standing in front of a rack and it looked like he was browsing their stock. He pushed the glass door with a ding on the store's old-fashioned bell.

"Coach?" he asked and the man seemed to take notice of him but he didn't even turn to see him.

"Take a look at this." he said, pointing one of the papers on the news paper rack. Tsurugi gave him a confused look and went to pick it up. There it was still on the front pages, the horrors that he and his teammates had barely scrape away from and not without scars. He snarled a bit at some of the words. Recently, the media had begun to look more and more like opportunistic parasites to him. If they had died, it probably would have made better publicity.

"Look for paragraph four." Endou said while browsing through the store's edibles. Tsurugi grumbled while skimming the article's first three paragraphs before reading the fourth in case there were some important information there. He began reading the sentences quietly as Endou went to the counter.

"I'll buy that." Endou said, pointing to a sesame covered rice ball. "I'll eat it here. Thank you." he said upon paying the teller with two shiny coins. He took a large bite which he savoured with some nostalgia and returned to see how Tsurugi was doing.

"…."

"…."

Endou pushed the rest of the rice into his mouth and felt the large clumps of the sweet rice fall apart. He swallowed it easily and he wiped his hands on a piece of table napkin from a dispenser on the counter next to them.

"Are you done reading yet?" Endou asked and Tsurugi folded it again and placed it back on the rack and he looked very green and ill. "So I assume you've figured out the recent mystery that's left our investigating friends in a stump?"

Tsurugi didn't answer and quickly left the room in a hurry. Endou didn't say a kind word to offer his sympathy. Frankly, he had finally grown weary of spoon-feeding him advices to keep him out of trouble. As of now, if he needed to learn something, it would have to be harder way, not that it stopped him from feeling bad for him but life wasn't all roses. It was both the warmest and coldest of embrace, one Tsurugi should know all too well.

"Sir? Will you be buying that newspaper?" the teller behind him asked.

"Oh. Sorry but no." Endou answered apologetically.

"Are you sure? You were so preoccupied with a while ago." the teller asked.

"Yes. Sorry for the bother." he said before leaving. The teller sighed disappointedly to himself for letting another chance to make another bill go by, unaware of who the man with the orange headband was.

He picked up the paper and just grumbled disgustedly. "More about those murders? Gyuh! Who wants to read that?"

The man shuddered and placed it back in amongst the rest of the dailies. And went back to his station to await another customer and no sooner did a lady come running ecstatically.

"Hey there! You look normal today!" she pipped. "Who's the guy who left? Did he buy something too?"

"Heh. You're happy today. Did you finally read your quota yesterday?" he asked.

"No, I- What? How'd you guess?" she asked.

"Wait, you did? That was a joke." he said teasingly and the girl became furious.

"Geez! You're so mean!" the lady said. "The man you just left helped me out and ordered ¥900 worth of food!"

"Did you just run up to him and told him to buy those things?" he sighed.

"Actually, yes I did! Hmph!" she said before leaving before stopping and coming back.

"I'd like to buy a newspaper first." she mumbled.

"Sure thing." he said, taking her money and she took the paper and read it.

"Oh, more about the serial killings. Goody…" she said redundantly.

"It's still gruesome as ever." he said. "Disgusting if you ask me."

"Hm…it seems they discovered something." she said. "Or not. What they learned seems to have them stumped."

"Really? Well, not all surprising actually." he said.

"It looks like it's about rifle." she said. "Apparently it's hammer got broken. It got jammed but there was no sign of damage on it anywhere that could have caused it."

"So it just got broken for no reason?" he said. "Meh. They'll figure it out eventually."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Well it's not like _some force_ could _posses_ the gun and snapped the hammer broken." he said while mimicking a non-frightening, stereotypical movie ghost and she stuck her tongue at him and left.

Tsurugi was on his way to the caravan. He saw Tenma dragging an unfamiliar, soccer-looking bag into the caravan's compartment which looked heavy. Not too heavy for him but heavy still.

"Hey, do you need help?" he asked and the young boy squeaked in surprise.

"Oh, it's you. Sorry." Tenma said and Tsurugi took the bag and lifted it into the compartment easily with one arm. "Who's bag is this? I've never seen it before."

"Uh, it's yours." Tenma said apologetically.

"…what?" Tsurugi asked a little confoundedly.

"Um, Sangoku handed it over to me to carry…and it broke." Tenma sighed. "Well, just the strap. But it's all right. Aoi said her mother could fix it."

Tsurugi looked away upon hearing Aoi's name. He could sense foul play or a future foul play but she wasn't the sort surely.

"Tsurugi? You're spacing out again." Tenma said and Tsurugi quickly apologised.

"Sorry. Let's go back." Tsurugi said. Tenma grumbled dismally to himself.

"Sorry. I thought you would like it since it looked like a soccer ball." Tenma said sorrily.

"Huh? Why are you apologising?" Tsurugi asked.

"Hmph. I can take a hint so you can stop with the act." Tenma said. "Instead of scolding me, now you're using reverse psychology? Humph…"

"Ugh. I'm not using reverse psychology." Tsurugi told. "I'm just trying to be calmer."

"Yeah, right!" Tenma said. "I'm going to go buy a snack for the trip. Bye!"

"Wha-Tenma!" he said but he just ran off angrily. "Tch! I try to be nicer and this happens?! …not that I can't blame him."

He went after Tenma who hadn't gone too far and he quickly stopped Tenma from going further.

"Tenma, stop!" Tsurugi said, stopping him quickly and strangely enough, he did stop.

"What is it?" he asked. "I really am hungry for something sweet. And cold. And drippy."

Tenma was clearly describing ice cream and the sweat and thirsty look on his face finally took Tsurugi's attention. "…fine. Let me buy you then."

"What? Really?" Tenma asked. "You're not…you aren't up to something are you?"

"And you're not giving me a lot of reasons to be nicer to you." Tsurugi said. "So do I walk away then?"

"Um, I don't really understand." Tenma said with a confused expression. "But I really like chocolate."

"Chocolate it is then." Tsurugi said. "You just stay here and rest."

"Fine." Tenma said, sitting down in the compartment and watched Tsurugi leave. He was feeling tired anyway. "Hmm…"

He felt bored now. There was nothing to do! Tenma quickly got up, making sure to mind his head. He walked around the caravan aimlessly as watched his friends, happy that they were finally going to leave. Kirino is supposed to leave in a different vehicle since his injuries were still terrible and Shindou was so worried that he chose to go with him. He sort of understood what Kirino was going through now because everyone suddenly didn't want him doing a lot of things he normally would. Even simple things like running around is now forbidden. He couldn't even walk alone anymore.

He began wandering a few more feet away from the caravan down the road. He looked up to see the forest and he almost forgot how he and his friends nearly died there. It looked so nice and peaceful now.

"Hm?" Tenma wondered.

"Okay. There wasn't any chocolate but hopefully he'll be okay with marshmallow." Tsurugi muttered to himself. He returned to where he had left him and there he was gone to his shock.

"Ugh, he just never stays put does he?!" Tsurugi muttered angrily and he went around the caravan quickly to see almost everyone there except Kirino, Shindou, and of course, Tenma.

"Hey, Tsurugi." Kuramada greeted. "Uh, your bag broke but Tenma went and bought you another one."

"I know. It's a soccer ball." Tsurugi said. "Tenma told me."

"Really? Where is he then?" he asked, looking around curiously. "I thought he was outside but it doesn't look like anyone's there."

Tsurugi could feel glares on his back and he daren't even turn to see them.

"He went to play with a puppy we found." Tsurugi said, not being able to think of anything else.

"You found a puppy?!" Shinsuke yelled happily all of a sudden, popping up from a seat. "Where is it?"

"Uh, he took it to a shelter." Tsurugi said quickly and the boy frowned and went back down angrily.

"When will he be back?" Hikaru asked.

"A little later. I'll go get him. Um, here." he said, handing the cold swirl to Hikaru and leaving in a hurry.

"Wait! What am I supposed to do with this?" Hikaru asked but Tsurugi was gone.

"…so are you going to eat that?" Kariya asked who sitting next to him.

"Hm…" Hikaru muttered.

Tsurugi turned quickly to scan his surroundings once he was far away enough from the caravan. "Where did he go?"

Tsurugi turned back and off the road miles away from the caravan was Tenma who was looking into the forest…while waving?

Tsurugi became curious with his more parental instincts kicking in and marched to Tenma's side.

"Tenma." he said. The boy flinched before turning shakily but he calmed a bit quickly. "I thought I told you to just stay there."

"I know…" Tenma muttered.

"Then why are you here then?" Tsurugi asked. "And miles away from the group at that."

"No reason. I just wanted to walk around." Tenma answered. Tsurugi looked to where Tenma was waving at and he only saw a bare cliff protruding from the mountain.

"And who were you waving at?" he asked.

"Isn't it obvious? That man on the cliff." Tenma said pointing at the very same one which was still bare as far as Tsurugi could see.

"Very funny. Now who were you waving at?" Tsurugi asked again irritably and Tenma gave him a puzzled look.

"But I'm not joking!" Tenma said. "See? He's still there. Don't you see him?"

"I don't see anyone Tenma." Tsurugi answered sourly. "Why do you keep insisting someone's there?"

"Because there is!" Tenma said. "He's there. See? Just look harder."

Tsurugi looked up again and of course, the very same cliff was empty. Nothing alive, not even a blade grass, stood on its craggy skin. "I've had enough. Stop playing and answer me honestly." Tsurugi scolded.

"What?" Tenma said. "But he is there! He is. Are you sure you're not the one joking?"

"Hey, Tenma!" Kariya greeted from behind them and Tsurugi let out a growl and Tenma huffed angrily.

"Um, did we come at a bad time?" Hikaru asked who was still holding the melting white ice cream.

"Why are you still holding it?" Tsurugi asked perplexed.

"You were the one who just shoved it to me and left!" Hikaru said and Tenma outed looking at it, wondering if was for him and if it was why wasn't it chocolate?

"Speaking of which, you also said that Tenma was at the animal shelter." Kariya asked and Tenma was now even more confused.

"What?" Tenma asked.

"Uh…" Tsurugi uttered. There wasn't much to say to cover his lie up anymore.

"Anyway, Kariya, Hikaru, tell me honestly." Tenma said. "Do you see someone on that cliff?"

The two boys looked confusedly at each and both shook their heads after giving the spot a quick glance.

"No." Hikaru answered.

"Not a soul." Kariya said and Tenma sighed. He looked back up and then he could finally see what his friends were seeing; nothing.

"Oh, he left. That's why." Tenma said and two boys now looked worriedly at him.

"Actually, we saw you two arguing for a while now." Kariya said. "We looked up to where you kept pointing and we didn't see anyone there the whole time."

"What? Are you certain?" Tenma asked upon his answer in confusion.

"Tenma, really, enough." Tsurugi sighed tiredly as he massaged his forehead from the head ache he was getting. "Are you going to suppose that it was a-!"

"H-Huh?" Tenma stuttered. "But…I-I really saw… Never mind. I'm going back."

"Ugh, wait." Tsurugi said but Tenma left hurriedly, visibly more taken aback than he was.

"Now look what you've done!" Kariya scolded to him to striker shot a heavy glare at him.

"Uh, what was that last part? I didn't quite catch it." Hikaru asked suddenly in hopes to distract the both of them before a physical confrontation broke.

Suddenly, all the tension Tsurugi felt melted away and he looked away from him. He said nothing but he went to follow Tenma who ran back inside the caravan. He knew as he could suddenly see most of his teammates peering out angrily from the windows at him as if to ask him what he had done this time. The ones of Aoi and Shinsuke were most piercing with obvious death threats. Tsurugi was now having second thoughts if maybe he should risk his life going in but he certainly couldn't leave things this way. He walked towards the bus edgily, trying to ignore the everyone but the united homicidal vehemence made it difficult. Tsurugi got in and everyone suddenly began going back to their usual activities, most likely to keep Tenma from noticing how wrought up things have been. The latter was sitting at the back of the caravan who looked as though he was trying to get some sleep. He went back, avoiding as little contact of any kind and sat quietly next to him though he still managed to disturb Tenma who looked a bit annoyed but he turned to go back to sleep.

"…sorry." he finally said. "I believe you."

"Hm." Tenma muttered to try to rest, still worried about what he saw and what no one else did. Perhaps maybe he was more tired and stressed than he had realised.

There wasn't much to say between them. All Tsurugi did was stare outside to look for the figure he couldn't see.

"Okay, everyone go back. We're leaving. This time for real." Endou said, coming in. Tsurugi closed his eyes and let out a breath of relief. Finally. They were leaving. The caravan's engine began running and he could hear the rubber turning. Soon he looked back to the town behind them. Hopefully for good.

* * *

_"…"_

"_They're gone._" a younger boy with brown hair and silver eyes said.

"_Yes._" an older boy next to him said would a navy-coloured hair and shimmering gold eyes. In his hand was a wooden staff with its end sharpened. Despite their old clothes, the pair looked quite similar to two of the boys resting in the caravan.

"_I didn't get to say farewell to Sword._" the younger boy muttered regretfully. The older boy bent down and picked him up into his arms, stroking his back gently before quietly settling his head into his other shoulder.

"_Well, don't think about it now._" the older one answered.

"_Still…_" the younger muttered, still feeling bad. The older one looked at him protectively and held him closer.

"_My Prince,_" he said. "_I know it's not my place to ask you for something but I want you to remember today no matter what._"

"_Of course, older brother_. _Nothing is more important to me than this moment too._" the smaller boy said happily. He snuggled into his arms happily.

"_I see._" he said contentedly. He looked at the boy with his happy eyes. He stroked him quietly with relief. The smaller boy just happily smiled there, enjoying the faint forest breeze.


	12. BONUS 1: Searching the Town

**Author's Note:** As Inazuma Eleven Go belongs to Level 5, I have prepared a series of short BONUS chapters totalling to 20. Each takes place at a different point of the story in that was not seen by readers. Enjoy.

To Kulaso(Guest): Um, what didn't you understand? If it's the identity of the last two people at the end of 'The Departure', try reading the first chapter again. As for other things, all, more detailed questions shall be answered in the future BONUS chapters.

* * *

"Tenma? Tenma?!" Endou called as he walked around. No one answered saved for a stray orange cat that mewled at him as he walked by, perhaps domesticated.

*_Meow!_* it went and walked off with its tail swaying.

Endou sighed angrily. This was a small village yet he could not find any of the children of the Raimon Eleven. He didn't know how this was even possible! There was nothing he could do but continue going around every corner to try to find Tenma. He knew should be worrying about the rest of the others who had went off on their own as well but they had already proven themselves more than capable of fending for themselves. Tenma, on the other hand, could barely even open his eyes without whining in pain and it was a sad sight to see. But still, if he did run into any of the other members, that would be just as well because not seeing them once was now starting to make him wonder if they had disappeared too. Endou sighed exhaustedly after ten more calls without any answer to offer his some comfort.

"This is madness." Endou said to himself. "Where could he have gone?"

…And then a mental slap to his own head. Tenma could barely even open his eyes let alone walk. He couldn't have run away then!

"How stupid could I have been?!" Endou scolded himself, wondering how he hadn't realised this information sooner though he suspected lack of sleep but there was something more important now; if Tenma couldn't have disappeared by himself, why was he gone? Something must have happened to him then. Could it be possible that he had been kidnapped?

"No. The whole team was there. If someone had been taken, they would have noticed for sure." Endou answered to himself. He secretly prayed that but something in him began wrenching at him that he was indeed correct. Somehow it did happen and somehow things would get worse. Cold sweat began to accumulate in hands as the terrible feeling curled itself in his stomach.

Endou looked up at all the unlit houses lining the road's edge. They must be filled with families sleeping comfortably in their warm beds behind the safety of the architecture's walls; a whole family. Not one was missing probably. And he could imagine all the children being where they were supposed to be; safe at home probably dreaming the minutes away.

"Well, it's only natural. It must be around four in the morning." Endou mumbled to himself. No child should be up and away from their homes at this hour.

"…Well, that's enough time to myself." he said to himself before continuing on his desperate search. "Tenma? Tenma!"


	13. BONUS 2: A Teammate's Complaints

"Excuse me but have you seen this boy around?" Sangoku asked the teller worriedly as he showed his a photo of brunette youth in their soccer uniform from one of the many photos Akane took of everyone. Like the rest he had asked before, he shook his head without a concerned look. He knew nothing and it didn't look like he could care much either. He probably thought that Tenma had just run off to play or something. "Okay. Thank you then."

Kurama glanced at him with his usual, stoic look before following him out. He could see how frustrated he was but what was to be done? The two then quietly left the green-roofed convenient store with a ding the from the store's bell, not that either one noticed.

Sangoku looked around and saw a man in suit walking by. He went towards him quickly but he barely uttered a question when the man saw him and quickly pushed him away. "Not now, young man! I've got further, more important things to attend to at my museum!"

Sangoku frowned angrily as he walked away.

"Grr…It seems that no one here knows a thing!" Sangoku cursed.

"Perhaps we should take a rest?" Kurama suggested, noticing how he was searing with rage.

"Ugh. Forgive me." Sangoku apologised. "Let's sit down for a moment on the bench."

Kurama followed him as silently as ever. They took a seat when they could hear two calls behind them. They turned and saw Hamano and Hayami who sounded happy to see them but the angry furrows on their brows conveyed their true bitterness.

"So how was your search?" Hamano asked. Sangoku just shook his head and the two others frowned with feelings of unsettlement.

"Yours?" Sangoku asked back and they shook their heads too.

"Everyone we've asked doesn't know a thing." Hamano answered. "No one in this town knows anything."

"And some of the people we've asked sometimes ignore us." Hayami said. "It's getting really hard to continue sometimes."

"I know how you feel." Sangoku said. "Still, we should keep on trying. It's not like he could have gone anywhere else."

"All right. See you then. We'll call you if anything comes up." Hamano said before leaving. It seemed that he had approached them hoping to be given some more positive news to uplift their spirits but what Sangoku had could not provide that. He was hoping someone would come and lift his spirits up too.

"Geez, that little brat." Kurama muttered which didn't go unnoticed by the older boy next to him.

"What?" Sangoku asked angrily. Kurama didn't so much as look at him at all to respond. Sangoku sighed angrily but he did little to nothing but give a long, deep huff and just got up.

"I'm going to go and continue looking around." Sangoku told before leaving. Kurama sighed frustratedly to himself, ruffling his own hair.

"Ugh, this is seriously his fault." Kurama said to himself. "He shouldn't have left and made us all worry."

He uttered nothing more but got up to help the goalkeeper with his endeavour.


	14. BONUS 3: Vandalism Report

"Can't believe after all these years he's back!" a senior officer said to another.

"D-don't say that! There's no actual proof that he's returned." the other, more younger officer replied. They were a small police force with little power. As soon as the reports of another child disappearing came, majority of the manpower shifted to investigating and locating the boy. What little was left prayed that the child had simply gotten himself lost as they attended to the other, more normal problems of the residents.

"Well, we should focus on our duties. I hate to say it but even if we wanted to, there's nothing we can do but pray the kid's alright." the senior officer said. "Until then, we might as well do our job."

"Hn…" the other officer sighed.

And then…BAM!

"Police! Officers! I need someone's help!" a man bursted in screaming with an ax of all things! Both officers screamed as they both drew their guns.

"P-put your w-w-weapon down now, s-sir!" the younger officer yelled with his hands shaking but still with a firm grip on his weapon from his rigorous training. More officers quickly appeared in shock and quickly trailed their guns to the madman.

"WHAT?! You dare point your weapons at a common citizen in need?!" the man yelled in shock.

"Wait a minute. I know this guy, rookie." the older officer said with a tired groan. "He's just the curator from the museum. Lower your weapon."

"L-lower my- He has an ax!" the younger officer yelled and older looked back to the curator and eyed at the ax.

"Lower yours too." he said. "Regardless if it's weapon."

The curator muttered angrily but he lowered it on the floor. The older officer went and took it before looking at his junior who sighed and put his gun back down as did the rest behind him.

"Now, calm down and breath will you?" the older officer said.

"Calm down!? How can I?!" the curator said. "My museum-"

"CALM DOWN AND BREATHE. NOW." the older officer ordered with a most intense tone. The curator sighed in defeat and took three deep breathes and two long sighs.

"Ugh…forgive my previous outburst." he said though the officer looked annoyed.

"Did you skip your medications?" he asked.

"The store ran out." he answered.

"Wait, you know him?" his junior asked and his senior nodded.

"I booked him before for creating a public disturbance. And for another before and another before that." he explained. "No injuries. Just loud screaming and he was sentenced to a year of anger management."

"Hold a moment, we are not here to discuss this!" the curator said. "My museum is being destroyed at the moment by some vandals!"

"Vandals?" the older officer asked. "Are you sure? Not that I'm doubtful but the last time you complained about vandals it turned out it was just a lost cat who wandered in."

"Yes! Yes, I'm sure!" the curator said. "There were even the visitors! They saw everything!"

"Witnesses?" the older officer said though still skeptical. "Fine but if we find nothing, I'm going to charge you with disorderly conduct."

"Very well. Now come quickly!" the curator said. The older officer just sighed tiredly while his junior gave him an odd look. The two, along two more officers, hurriedly rushed to the museum in their police car. It took some time but upon arriving, the youngest had just stepped out when he let out a yelp.

"Goodness! The vandals actually destroyed this door!" he yelled and his three subordinates were also shocked as well as they went up to the doors carefully. If this was indeed the vandals' doing, they proved to be very violent.

"Ah, that was actually my doing." the curator said nervously. "The vandals, you see, as they were making a horrid mess inside, they locked the door and I had no way of getting in except by force."

"And so I'm guessing that was what the ax was for?" the senior officer said irritably. The curator nodded and the officers gave him long glare.

"And if you ask me, everything inside looks pretty normal to me. Aside the door that is." the junior police officer said as he looked inside. The curator turned red in anger again and nearly exploded.

"What?! So the museum is a old but it's insulting to demean it to be a pig's sty!" he said and burst open the doors wide for the officers to take a better look and in entering the establishment and looking around, everything WAS normal. The doors were all shut, the floor was spotless, and everything was where it was supposed though it seemed that one of the mannequins was out of place. The curator's breathing stopped and he nearly fainted when he saw how neat the room was.

"B-but I swear-!" the curator said. "There was a commotion! A fight! And everything was a mess!"

"Everything looks absolutely well if you asked me." the older officer said angrily. "Better in a while even and you went and ruined the property, barged into a police station with a dangerous item with a complaint you needn't scream about which I'm now pondering as to whether is authentic as you truly said it to be. That's it! One night in a cold cell and a fine. Take him away, rookie."

"What?! No!" the curator yelled. "Everything was I mess, I say! It was those vandals! Those tourists maybe!"

"Yeah, yeah. Go explain it to the insurance office." the older officer said as the curator was dragged off who couldn't understand as to what had happened.

Several miles away, Endou found himself carrying the ghost child on his shoulders which didn't feel any different. "You've recovered very quickly." he said.

"_Oh, it's been so long since I've been out!_" the child said happily.

"I'm sure anyone would be happy to be away from that maniac." Tsurugi muttered.

"_The scary man isn't all bad._" the child said. "_He's nice. Just when he's not angry. Mister?_"

"Yes?" Endou said.

"_Are you sure cleaning everything will make the scary man a happy man?_" the child asked worriedly. Endou smiled assuringly at him and nodded.

"Of course he will!" Shinsuke said to him. "He loves the museum so much after all. I'll bet he's singing his socks off right when he sees it!"

"_That's…better I guess?_" the child said, thinking about socks flying from a man singing.

"Still, you think he'll notice that we replaced the original mannequin Tsurugi broke with the one we found in the supply room?" Aoi asked worriedly at the thought of the curator furiously coming for them for messing with his precious exhibit.

"If that's the case, we'll just have to leave before he finds out." Endou answered. The ghost child began humming a tune at of boredom.

"_I hope he's feeling so happy too!_" he hummed.


	15. BONUS 4: Caravan Conversation

The silence in the air was nerve-wracking. Neither Ichino nor his friend Aoyama were used to such a thing. It was overwhelming; incredibly overwhelming.

"Oh, I just remembered, I brought some books for the trip." Ichino said out of the blue. "I brought three. Do you want to read one with me, Aoyama?"

Despite being his friend, Aoyama gave him dismal look of dissatisfaction as he wasn't so fond of books as he was; the one thing where their opinions varied.

"Um, no. Maybe something else?" he asked.

"How about we play a game then?" Ichino said to his friend.

"Like what?" Aoyama asked.

"Did you bring your _Magic_ cards?" Ichino asked though Aoyama shook his head.

"I completely forgot them." he said.

"I see." Ichino said. "Well, I've been getting into astrology. You want to go up the caravan with me? "

"Sorry, Ichino but no, I don't really want to." Aoyama said flat out. It disheartened Ichino but he could not blame his friend.

"Okay. Well, what would you like to do instead?" he asked.

"Ichino…" Aoyama said but his eyes then squinted to the window with suspicion.

"Something wrong?" Ichino asked worriedly. His friend took notice quickly and shook his head.

"No, I just thought I heard someone outside." Aoyama said, peering out but there was a thick fog around and he couldn't see a thing. "Darn the humidity here."

"Don't tell me you think someone's there." Ichino asked. "No one would go there."

"Shindou did." Aoyama countered which made Ichino pause for a bit. The two, with flashlights, quickly left to see if anyone was there but there was none in sight that they could see.

"I guess no one's here." Aoyama said though he kept looking around just to be sure.

"Let's go back." his friend said wearily. Aoyama followed him back into the bus. Once in, they took out the spare blankets and wrapped it around themselves for warmth, undoubtedly a little cold.

"How do you think Coach is doing?" Aoyama asked in concern.

"I don't know." Ichino answered. "I hope they find something."

Aoyama didn't answer. Perhaps they would find something but it might be something pointing towards an even more gruesome tragedy. Quickly sensing his thoughts of negative scenarios, Ichino decided to change the subject again.

"By the way, I just bought the new_ soccer game_ for my _console_." Ichino said. "We can do a _download play_."

"Ichino…" Aoyama said though he wasn't sure how to say it. "I know what you're trying to do but I'm not actually in the mood to do anything."

"Oh." Ichino said meekly. "All right. I won't force you."

"I'm sorry." Aoyama said. "I know what you're trying but I just really don't want to do anything right now."

"But that's why we have to do something." Ichino reasoned. "We just can't sit down for hours. We need to do something to get our minds off this. More importantly, we need something to keep our spirits up at a time like this."

"Ichino, I'm not as positive as you." Aoyama said to him sadly.

"Positive?" Ichino asked. "I didn't think I was being positive."

"How do you do it?" Aoyama asked almost desperately. "How can you find a reason to be happy at a time like this?"

"I'm not trying to." Ichino said. "I'm just…just still trying to notice the good still here."

"Like what?" Aoyama asked.

"Um…" Ichino muttered to think for a moment though little came to mind.

"See? There's nothing." Aoyama said.

"Don't say that!" Ichino said to him with a snap.

"But even you have to admit there's nothing!" Aoyama replied. "It's impossible for both of them if they were caught by a man who intends to kill them!"

"…I guess." Ichino answered. "But then again, we thought the same about Fifth Sector, didn't we? But in the end, we managed to beat them. If that's the case then maybe…perhaps they can prove us wrong again."

And for a moment, there was nothing in the air.

"…And what if we're right?" Aoyama asked. Ichino didn't but he looked down with a heavy expression. It wasn't a question he wished to give answer to.

"And what if we're wrong?" Ichino replied back. "Either way, what good will it do just moping around about it? I know it's hard but right now, all we can do is believe and them."

"...all right. I'll take your word for it. Not like I have a choice anyway..." the former asked again. "Oh, and can I borrow one of your _Magic cards_? Let's try a round."

Ichino gave him a quick and surprised glance but all the same, nodded with a smile to his friend.

* * *

_Magic cards_- Yes, the cards referred here are the real life card game, Magic: The Gathering, as in the ones developed in America and now played popularly world wide.

_Soccer game_- May be a game from the FIFA franchise, REAL SOCCER 2009, or EVERYDAY SOCCER.

_Console, download play- _The console hear is undoubtedly either a DS or a 3DS.


	16. BONUS 5: Cave Logs

**-{2:21}-**

Tenma moaned quietly as his migraines returned. "Coach… medicine…I-I need…"

It was then he felt something cold press on his head. He opened his eyes just a bit to see a silhouette of a figure in front of him before the dizziness suddenly hit and everything just melded together as it would in blender.

"_…ere. Tak…is_."

Everything was harder to comprehend but Tenma felt a distinct feeling of being pulled up slightly. It was cold so he held his covers firmly around himself.

"_Op…ur mo..._"

He felt something over his lips. He opened his mouth a little to let out an annoyed whine. It was then something liquid and hot was slipped into his mouth. He coughed as it went down his throat but it tasted good and his body reacted quickly happily, feeling a bit warmer. He felt another tap and his lips and he happily took a quick sip.

It took only seven minutes before he was placed back down. By then, he was feeling much better and he fell back to sleep.

_"…eep wel.."_

**-{11:35}-**

"Hm…" Tenma moaned, waking up and looking around with his hair slightly disordered. Now though, there was no more headaches, body chills, nausea… He was feeling a little light headed and weak but over all, he felt better. The problem though…

"Where am I?!" he said, looking around in surprise. It looked like he was in…a cave? And there was a hole showing a breathtaking view. He nearly went over to see the scene when a flavourful scent caught his attention and he turned and saw a single stone with a smooth, flat top in the centre of the cave with cooked fish on a large leaf with a wooden bowl of soup set on top. He got up and he felt a rustle under him. He looked and saw his bed, a makeshift of branches and leaves.

He went to the food and he could tell it was all freshly made. He turned around the room but he found himself alone with the reminisce of small campfire in the corner. But where was the cook of the food?

"Hello? Um, is anyone there?" he asked but there was no response. "…Uh, someone, please answer."

…maybe he had gone out?

Odd. He had a distinct feeling he knew the person. His stomach let out a low growl. Tenma felt a little dizzy again from his empty stomach. He sighed and kneeled down in front of the 'table', said his thanks and began eating with the two twigs laid there as chopsticks.

**-{11:59}-**

Tenma licked his lips to get the small stains of the soup around his mouth. It was that good and it tasted familiar.

He got up, looking around but there was not a soul around. With nothing else to do, Tenma picked himself and left.

**-{12:42}-**

Tenma had a good feeling. It had taken a while but after going downhill for a bit, he felt that he had to be close to the caravan by now.

He pushed away some leaves and he was shocked. He was back at the cave again!

"Huh? How did that happen?" Tenma said. He was sure he had walked away from the cave but here he was. "Maybe I took a wrong turn…"

Tenma wonder what had happened when he smelled something from inside the cave. He went in and the he found a food again in the cave. It wasn't as fresh but it was there all the same.

"Okay, I know you're there!" Tenma yelled, looking around but no response. He was definitely alone with no one else in sight. He went towards the fruit on the table with the bowl of water. Frankly, he wasn't sure about drinking the water but he was so thirsty from walking under heat. He ate the fruit and drank the water and he felt better quickly.

With no one still around, he got up and left again.

**-{14:03}-**

Tenma ran back in quickly. He knew he should be frustrated that he still wasn't out but with the sudden rain shower, he was just glad to have some shelter. He huffed and sat back down on the bed, hoping it would dissipate soon but it only got stronger and heavier. He laid his head down on the bed. After a while, the rain finally let up.

Tenma left once more but this time he turned back. He wasn't sure but he bided goodbye to whoever if anyone was nearby before leaving again.

**-{15:46}-**

Third time wasn't the charm. He was back once more in the cave though he didn't how this was possible.

"Why do I keep coming back here?" Tenma muttered. He was feeling famished again and strangely enough, he returned into the cave to more fruits laid out and water. He shrugged and consumed his snacks before leaving again.

"Goodbye." he said. "And…are you why I can't leave? Can you stop?"

He then left, hoping he would arrive somewhere familiar other than here.

**-{16:28}-**

Tenma said nothing. He was back once more in the cave. He slid back down against a tree. He didn't want to go in anymore.

After a few minutes of rest, he left again.

**-{17:31}-**

"Oh, come on!" Tenma yelled. His fifth attempt had failed once more. Now though, he felt parched. With no other choice, he went back inside and sure enough, there was a wooden bowl of water with a campfire in the corner, probably because it was starting too get dark and cold.

He drank the water and lied back down on the bed exhaustedly.

What was he doing wrong? He knew he wasn't good with some directions but not this bad!

"All right…" Tenma muttered. "I'll just go in one straight line! I can't end up back here!"

Tenma left hurriedly to try once again.

"_…he just won't give up._"

-**-{18:22}-**

"Crab cakes!" Tenma yelled. It was his form of cursing, unable to actually curse.

He was back at the cave again but he didn't know how! He didn't make even a turn this time!

He broke down quietly and began sobbing, something he wouldn't usually do but he was tired and he wanted to go home but why did he keep arriving to this place?

"Ugh one more…" Tenma said, wiping away his tears. "One more time. I have to try."

**-{19:46}-**

"What?! Again?!" Tenma yelled in shock. Despite everything, he was back at this cave as his destination for the seventh time!

How could this be happening?

"Ugh, I'm too tired to think about this." Tenma muttered to himself. He finally surrendered himself and simply returned to the inside of the cave.

It was empty, as always, but strangely enough again there was freshly cooked food, a roasted piece of rabbit, laid on the piece of flat rock. Not only that but there was now a small campfire in the corner.

Someone was definitely here.

"Hello? I know you're there." Tenma said. Still, no one answered and Tenma sighed.

He wasn't sure what to think. He knew he should be worrying by now, even panicking but for some reason, he couldn't find any reason to be scared. If anything though, he felt reassured. Really, albeit left very confused and irritated by the situation.

"Forget it." Tenma said, sitting down on the floor in front of the . "But thank you all the same."

He felt bad because rabbits were cute but he hadn't eaten since for a while. As Tenma ate greedily, he didn't notice the person standing just behind him, staring at him. He hadn't realised it but he had been there following him for nearly the entire day except for a couple of moments where he had to go hunting and cook the food. It was obviously an unhealthy thing to do but he had to make sure that nothing happened to him.

Tenma finally finished, licking his lips a bit while sucking on the bone. He was now affirmably hooked on the rabbit meat.

"All right." Tenma said, getting up and sighing. "One more time. I suppose the eighth time should do it."

Tenma turned and left, passing through the teen's body behind him.

The teen is phantom. Tenma didn't even see him as he ran back out. The teen just sighed but instead of following Tenma, he stooped to a small hole hidden in a dark shadow by the tunnel. He took out a staff and a sharp rock and began sharpening it as he sat down on the bed.

As much he as would like to, he couldn't follow Tenma out. He was too tired to and he still had his food to prepare and he was sure that he would be hungry again after another attempt to escape. And besides, this area was completely free from the more dangerous animals, most likely as they sensed his abnormal presence so it was perfectly safe for Tenma to wander around as long as the curse he placed on his eyes was still in effect. So long as that was there, all his surroundings would be warped and changed to inevitably lead him in circles within the area and back. Still, if he was smart at least, he would return soon just to be safe.

He sighed sadly as he continued on sharpening his weapon.

"_Is what I'm doing right?_" he wondered.

He knew he was just lying all over again and Tenma was clearly frustrated by it.

"_No…t-this is right._" he muttered to himself. "_Yes. This is right. I'm right. It's to protect him so it's okay. It's okay…_"

He didn't fully believe in those words truly but all he could do was ignore it. In the end, one shouldn't get so caught up with unimportant details like the past. It's best to just forget them all in all for the sake of making things better for the future.

The teen became more engrossed with each flick of wood as he muttered that over and over to himself like a mantra.

"_What I'm doing is right….what I'm doing is right…_"

He had to be right. He had to be in order to make things right. And that's why he is right. He is right.

The ghost sighed heavily, feeling tired. He hadn't slept for the entire day, staying up through the previous night to care for Tenma until he recovered. He found himself slowly drifting away...

**-{20:59}-**

"_….mm._"

The phantom looked around, puzzled at first and a little groggy but he sighed angrily after a few minutes.

"_I've got to stop falling asleep…_" he muttered . "_How long was I out? I need to go prepare his food._"

Was it a surprise? It was shocking for him when he first fell asleep many years ago. To think…the dead could sleep. Why would the dead even need it? But he wasn't one to question logic anymore. He was dead too and look what he could...

"_Huh?_"

Something didn't feel right. His curse…it-it's gone!

But how?! Only something he didn't know about intruding in could break it! It should be obvious. After all, how could he change the image of what he didn't know? But he knew every inch of this forest! There was nothing he didn't know about in the area.

So what could it be? Could it have been one of his friends searching for him? It was dark when he first caught a glimpse of them so he hadn't seen some of them. But what if it was something hostile?

There was nothing he could do but pick up his wooden spear and leave to try to find him, cursing himself that he hadn't gone with him simply from weariness. He wouldn't find him of course until the very next day.


	17. BONUS 6: A Captain's Duty

**Author note:** By God, please no hate mails, Shindou fans. I will say this as I warned before in 'Christmas' as this is among the darkest of the BONUS chapters,

DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE WHAT YOU SUSPECT ACTUALLY HAPPENED TO SHINDOU.

I repeat, DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE WHAT YOU SUSPECT ACTUALLY HAPPENED TO SHINDOU.

In short, just pretend something else happened all together and leave this page.

* * *

Shindou was just sitting there in the dark corner in a slump. He would have tried to escape if he thought that was even possible but the old man had broken him down so much, he wasn't as sure of it as he was before and he meant that both figuratively and literally. After he had broken out, the old man made very sure that wouldn't be able to escape the second time. His bruises were a testament to his sadistic brutality and he even swore he saw him smile with excitement as he was screaming from the blows he gave him.

Now he could barely stand without his leg giving him trouble and considering that he had to get away from wherever he was as quickly as possible, that was a huge handicap and the new iron chain around his neck did little to motivate him.

He would be lying if he said he hadn't tried to pull it out of the wall again in desperation but this time, the old man had replaced the rotten wood with another that was much stronger and even if he did break it, how could he get out of the house? He had tried to break free for what felt like a day and it probably had been but he hadn't even managed to leave more than one and a half meters in that time. Being trapped in this dark room without even an ounce of the sun's real light or warmth was absolutely unbearable and it finally got to him after hours of one too many fruitless struggles. If only he still had that hairpin the he could easily have picked the lock on his chain...

But Shindou didn't have it and now he wasn't sure what else to do. He cursed at himself for getting into this. He shook away at the reminisce of the ghastly things he had discovered in this horrible place and he cried at the thought that it would soon be him but his body refused to go on, exhausted without even an ounce of energy left. Still, part of him felt relieved strangely. Somehow fate decided to keep the old man from going after Kirino and more importantly, he never had Tenma to begin with. He smiled bitterly that at least if he was going to die, he could rest easy knowing that his best friend and junior had been managed to elude this fate.

A huge creak echoed through the room, alarming him the old man's return and of course, his death.

But when the old man entered the room, time froze and for a moment, he heard the cruelty of reality laugh and mock him as he saw him carrying Tenma on his shoulder like a fresh kill from a hunt.

"Tenma!?" He yelled and when he didn't see him move, the worst plagued his mind.

"Don't yell like that." The man told with a calm look. "He's only asleep. He'll wake in a later time."

"W-What did you do to him?!" Shindou demanded, as he saw the bandage around the old man's good arm, no doubt in his mind to be a cover to Tenma's handiwork.

"Only chloroform. He went down without a fight." The old man answered as looked towards Tenma sympathetic-like expression but Shindou knew very well what it truly meant and it made him sick.

"Then what are those wounds for? Did you beat him when he was he trying to get away from you?!" Shindou yelled, clearly referring slightly to his earlier ordeal and if he answered yes then so help him-!

"Watch that tone of yours." He threatened angrily, his true self now showing as he eyed Tenma visibly in front of Shindou. "I'm already feeling frustrated as it is. Perhaps I should take him down to the basement to vent all my stress out?"

Shindou nearly collapsed when he heard that. He quickly composed himself and looked down, apologizing silently to Tenma for endangering him like that.

"D-Don't...I'm sorry for raising my voice like that." Shindou said, keeping himself from exploding. "But please don't hurt him. He hasn't done anything."

"Good. You know your place." The old man said more calmly but still unmoved by his pleas. "And you needn't worry. I wouldn't have hurt him that much. He might have even enjoy it."

"Bastard! I won't let you do that to him!" Shindou yelled. He wanted to kill him.

The old man could see it in his eyes and the evil returned into his eyes.

"Then let's find out for ourselves shall we?" He asked and Shindou quickly realized what he had done.

"No, don't!" Shindou said but he could see that he didn't care. He turned to leave the room and he knew where he was taking Tenma and what he was going to do to him. Sure the chloroform would save him the horror of actually experiencing it but just the fact it had been done to him with definitely leave a permanent and painful scar on Tenma's psyche, he knew that much.

"Save your breathe." The old man said coldly. "Don't worry, I don't plan on killing him just yet. Once we finish, I'll bring him back and you can explain to him how he got here and what we did."

Every bone in his body was screaming now. He ran to stop him but found himself held back by the chains. He grabbed and desperately pulled at it over and over as he saw the old man pull the rug outside to reveal a basement door.

Shindou cursed, crying now as he realized what he had gotten his junior into. He pulled the chains over and over but it was obvious it wasn't going to break. He heard a loud creak and turned to see the basement door now open and right beside the old man was Tenma just lying there.

"No, don't do it to him!" Shindou yelled finally collapsing to his legs. "D-Do it to me instead!"

And with that, the old man stopped.

"What did you just say?" He asked in the same tone he had always spoke in.

Shindou himself was gasping from exhaustion and he wasn't quite sure himself as to what he had said. It really just came out but he looked at Tenma's unconscious body once more and he took a deep breath.

"I said do it to me." Shindou repeated. "Tenma...he hasn't done anything. If you're angry, just take it out on me but...please don't hurt him. Let me take his place."

The old man didn't answer for a while. Shindou wasn't even looking anymore as his whole body began shaking as it began to processed what he brought himself into.

The old man closed door and began walking to Shindou, each step the third-year could hear, each one bringing in more and more fear but he didn't move.

"So you want to do it then?" He asked, clearly with joy as he broke whatever remaining spirit he had left, now having grovel in front of him.

Shindou couldn't answer. All he could do was cry and nod his head. There wasn't a doubt in his mind.

"I don't normally do this for ones like you," the old man said. "But since it will be last your wish before I kill you tomorrow, I'll grant it this one time."

Shindou tried not to care. . But even then, his tears continued to flow uncontrollably unto the rotting floor boards as his entire body shook.

He could feel him staring down at him like garbage...he could see sadistic grin his in his head as he actually managed to force him to beg him to do something like this to him. It was humiliating but he didn't run away.

The old man brought Tenma back in, rested him on the torn mattress and Shindou stood there as he saw the chains being taken off of him placed on Tenma but he didn't run away. As they left him in the room, Shindou stayed. And as he led him into the basement, Shindou obeyed everything he was asked to do.

He'd rather this and death than let him touch Tenma.

He forced himself to remember that resolve over and over and as he cried out bitterly throughout those long, painful hours until daybreak finally came, not caring if it was heard or not.

Once it was all over, only one thing became certain to him, Tenma had to escape this place no matter what, even if it meant him being left behind or dying here or if came down to it, he would kill Tenma with his hands. Anything but let him go through what he had to as his last moments alive.


	18. BONUS 7: Awaking in Hell

**Author's** **note**:This BONUS chapter is somewhat darker in comparison to the rest of the BONUS chapters. Told from a certain character's point-of-view.

* * *

Ngh…my head is spinning.

What happened? I was just walking around…oh right, and it started raining. I must have slipped and hit my head.

What is that? The sun? No. Something's not right. The ground feels different too..

"Mgn…huh?"

What was that noise? It's definitely close by.

"What…wh-what the hell is this!?"

Irons!? Why are there chains around my leg?! Wait, Kirino-!

"Kirino? Kirino!"

Damn it! Not an answer! Ugh. It looks like I'm all alone.

I look up and it turns out the 'sun' is nothing more than a lightbulb and the 'ground' I'm on is a dilapidated bed.

Where am I? And what's that horrible smell? Urk…I think I'm going to puke.

I can tell that the putrid scent is coming from the small dark room connected to this room. There's no way I'm going in there. I see an old door in front of my bed and that's definitely my way out.

"I have to get out of here."

Okay. First thing's first; I need to get rid of these chains. Maybe there's something around here I can use! Let's see. There's this bed… Maybe I should just pull it? It's just attached to this wall and it looks pretty weak. Well, not like there's much of anything else I can do. I take hold of the chains and begin pulling as hard as I can.

"Urgh! Ngh! Come-Ah!"

***Crash!***

"Owowoww…Ouch!"

Okay…not one of my best ideas. Ugh, is my head bleeding? Doesn't feel like it. Still, for a rotten plank, this hurts…

Well, at least I'm not stuck to wall anymore. Now, for this door.

I walk up to it with the leg chains still there with the piece wall dragging. It's actually not that much in the way. A bit heavy though.

I grab the door knob and try to open it but it's lock.

Well, I guess I should have expected that. Looks like I'll have to make my own way out.

I knock it and there's no sound so it's definitely thick. I look around but there's really only one way to get out of here other than throwing the bed at it.

"This is going to hurt."

I walk all the way to the end of room while holding my chains and ready myself.

"Rah!"

I run towards the door but…

***Bang!***

"Ow…"

That was painful in so many levels… Still, if I want to get out. Tenacity is the key unfortunately.

I get up, groan a little, head all the way back, brace myself again, and run.

***Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Crash!***

"Gods…that hurt…"

This is far too painful. At least I'm out…ouch.

I try to get up and as I am, I see the door's broken, rusty old hinges lying around.

I guess the hinges were so weak that they broke when I rammed the door. Well, as long as I'm free, I'm not one to complain.

I look in front of me and joy; I see…almost nothing. The living room, or at least that's what I think it is, is empty save for a rug, a chair, and a bookshelf consisting of only five books. None of them looked worn though. Maybe a bit but they still looked like they've been used though not so much. I turn my head around and I feel the blood in face drain.

Well, the good news is that I think I've found my way out. The bad news, it's another door like the one I had just broken except this time it's made from metal from top to bottom and there's no handle!

"You've got to be kidding me! I can't break that!"

That thing would probably dent me! It's times like this I wish I had a soccer ball with me then at least I'd have chance. A slim one though.

I take a closer look and I feel relieved. There's a keyhole so if I could find something to pick it with, I'd be home free!

I turn southeast and I see another door just a few feet behind me. I don't know how I could have missed that. Probably because I was too eager to get out of here. I try to open it but as usual, it's locked.

"What's with this place? Everything here is off limits! Is this place a prison or something?"

And then it hits me. Oh no. This is a prison!

Not that it didn't hit me before but why is it that whoever kidnapped me is so hell-bent to keep me here? Chains, locks, metal doors… And what was going to happen once they returned?

I get this sick feeling in my stomach. Whatever it is, considering the lengths to keep me in, I don't think I'll leave alive.

My thoughts go back to how I got here in the first place. That's right. There was a ghost who abducted and killed children. Kirino, however, believed that it was a human being.

Oh gods…am I next then?

The thought of that scares me. Normally I would shake it off but there's a good chance I'm right. After all, what innocent explanation could there be for this place?!

I begin ramming the door again as hard as I can but it became clear that it wouldn't come down anytime soon and the hall was thin so I couldn't gather as much speed to help me out like a while ago. I inspect the door to find something and I see a lock.

Maybe something more conventional will save me.

I go back to the den to find something but when I went in, I saw a kitchen.

I feel ecstatic. There has to be something there I can use!

I run to go in-

"Augh!"

***Crash!* *Bang!***

"Ngh…"

Argh, that hurt. I can't believe I tripped on…

I pick myself from the chair and I see something odd beneath the rug. I can see some planks different from the others. I pull the rug and there's a secret hatch under!

Where could this lead? Maybe there's something inside that can help me.

But it's no use. I see a padlock keeping the door shut. And so breaking it open was out of the question unless I wanted to fall in and break a leg.

I go in to the kitchen where everything looks forgivable, not that he could tolerate it for more than a day.

I see the basic cooking utensils hung on the kitchen hanger. A pan, pot, and a kettle; nothing I could use to break the locks. I open the drawers and see only three spoons and forks but no knife. I check the cupboards but they're empty/

I give a heavy sigh and just continue searching through the rest of the cupboards and drawers but most were filled with nothing but empty spaces.

Great. Just great. Don't tell me, am I going to starve here?

I check the fridge behind me but it's near to empty too. I hope things don't come to that.

I check the other door in the kitchen but it's locked too. Frankly, I feel to beaten up to ram it again but what else can I do? I have to get out, even if it means more bruises.

I sigh again to lament my situation. Once I was ready, I get up and think little of nothing else.

***Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Crash!***

…nothing. The room was nearly empty except for the cans of food. I'm not so deluded as to think it would be so easy to open them.

I nearly scream as I leave when I trip over my own feet and hit the ground. It hurt but I don't do anything.

I'm tired. I feel so heavy. This weight, I can't describe it but it does feel familiar. And then I remember, this is the feeling of despair. I haven't felt this way in months.

I groan and stay where I am. I turn my head a little to a more comfortable position.

"Hm, what?"

I see a glint. There's something under the fridge.

I get up quickly and take a long wooden spoon I came across a while ago and I prod the object out and I can barely contain my happiness! It's a hairpin!

I don't really know why or how this got there but I'm too ecstatic to think about that right now.

I run over back to the metal door and I stick the pin inside.

My hopes dropped quickly.

The pin is too short. There's no way I can pick this lock and escape.

Now I feel helpless again. I turn when I see the locked door again.

That's right! Maybe I can pick that door and find something better!

I pray hard and pick the lock desperately.

***Clack.***

The door opens and I yell happily.

"Yes!"

I run in and l look around. This place looks a whole lot better compared to the rest of the house. It's not as dusty and the conditions are better.

I can see a closet and I go there quickly. It's locked too but I open it easily. And then the despair I felt grew.

Weapons. Rows of guns stood in front of me.

Definitely, definitely I wasn't going to come out here alive unless I escape and I must do it quickly.

I look around fast. Judging by the size of those artillery, I don't think I can fire one without repercussions and I'm not sure if it's powerful enough to break the lock anyway.

A box catches my eyes. Hopefully there'll be something there to help me.

I take it and rummage through.

"Huh?"

There're two keys inside. And they both had masking tape on the top part.

"BRoom? BMent?"

What're these for? Oh. Could it be 'bedroom' and 'basement'?

But I was already in the bedroom. Could there be another door here then?

I look around and see another door. I go to it but it's unlocked. Not only that, it leads to a simple bathroom.

I doubt what I'm looking for is in here.

I continue looking around the room. I just go near the bed and-

***Creak!***

I look down.

This floorboard's loose.

I go down and slide it away and I can see something inside.

A safe? And there was a keyhole. Could it be?

I open the safe with the key labeled, "BRoom". I pop it open smoothly and I see books inside or at least that's what I thought. I can see numbers written on them and I can see the word 'Album' on one too. It's also filled with odd trinkets. Toys, clothes, accessories…

A chill goes down my spine but I don't know why.

I open the album marked, '_**#1**_'.

" Ghn-! Wha-!?"

The album was filled with graphic and violent scenes of children; some roughly the same age as me, being tortured and I suspect, violated. I notice that they're all taken in the same room of wooded surroundings on a red cloth.

I throw it as far away as I can. Those photos were definitely authentic. Could that be why I was kidnapped?

I'm going…will I be put through that as well?

Will I end up there too?

I see the album bounce off the wall and it lands slightly opening. The pages flip in front of me and I can still see the pictures. It's sick.

It stops when the last page flips open in front of me and then a something slips out from between the pages.

I don't know why but I find myself compelled to pick it up.

It's a photograph of a family. They look happy and content but if it was in there then I have to assume the worst. I feel especially sorry when I notice a young girl, probably around only six or so. I assume her terrible fate when I notice the hair bun on her head. There was something on it that looked familiar.

The feeling gets worse. It's the hairpin!

"The hairpin I used…!"

I feel my stomach doing back flips and over. I hold it tightly with my other hand over my mouth.

I feel like vomiting.

She died but thanks to that, I might live.

I don't know what to think about that but I do know this…

I need to escape this place. And when I do, I need to bring this to light.

I quickly flee, clutching the hairpin and keys in hand. I head to the living room and pull out the rug.

The door is there and as much as I don't want to, I slip the key in and open it.

The other rooms proved little to help me. If there is nothing here, then I'll have to take my chances and use one of those guns.

I go down into the dark basement.

It's pitch black. I can't see a thing.

I feel around and come across a switch.

I flip it and the luckily the lights come back open.

I see a door nearby.

I go there and it's locked as well but with the familiar padlock. I open it easily and go in.

It's a bit dark so again, I feel the walls nearby. There's a switch and I flip it too.

The lights flicker open and my visions suddenly shakes.

A hardwood room.

A red satin cloth covering the floor.

A small chest sits barely out of sight in the corner.

This is where all those children were-

"**Hm? So this is where you were.**"

Something hits me from behind.

I hit floor painfully and I turn and look up and I see an elderly man holding a rifle.

"Gnk! Get away from me! Who are you!?"

I make my way quickly to the door but he hits me again with his rifle; this time in the stomach.

I cough the air out and he hits me again.

I fall down again, still holding my stomach.

He moves in front me and suddenly, my legs are lifted and I'm dragged in further. He's dragging me by me chains.

I try to crawl away but my hands slip on the floor.

I'm thrown to the side easily like I weigh nothing.

He goes to the door while I'm reeling from my injuries. To my horror, he locks it and turns again. He looks angry.

**"Don't try to do anything. It will only hurt more.**"

He lifts his rifle and I scream.

"….ngh.."

Wh-where am…I?

Yes…now I remember where I am….I can only presume that I must have fallen unconscious.

Everything just now…that must have been a dream.

No, a nightmare. An awful nightmare...

Ugh….I…gnk…!

The situation feels familiar.

I give a heavy sigh.

_**"That reminds me…I forgot to tell you. While I managed to subdue the boy…he wasn't alone. The other one he was with gave me a hard time but I managed to recognise him by his voice. He was the one I saw with you were with earlier that afternoon. You should have heard him scream when that bullet hit him…."**_

His words still echoed in my mind as he…we…

I try not to think it through. I don't think I could take it…

But at least Tenma's fine. That's what's important.

I try to move but it hurts. I can't move. It's tight. Now I remember.

My head is still a blur. Most of the…the transaction…most of it was a blur and yet it remained clear.

…doesn't matter.

What's done is done. Thinking about it won't help me.

I turn to my side though my body is quick to respond and I let out a small cry.

It hurts...

And then, a small glint under the chest catches my eye. It looks familiar.

I quickly realise; it's the hairpin! I thought he'd taken it after my beating but…!

So it fell under there somehow…

I take hold one the 'toys' lying around and nudge it out.

I can feel my body screaming as I do this but I only curse at it and utter nothing.

There. It's out.

Even with my hands tied behind my back, I've done it.

I take it somehow and tuck it away in my sullied jacket lying close by.

This hairpin has helped me so much… I'm sure this will help me…help us escape.

**"Why are up?"** a dark voice asks from behind, almost amused. **"Well, since you're up, I suppose you've really rested then?"**

He comes closer…..

…..

...

…_someone…please…I can't…_

_I can't….take…_

_much more…._


End file.
